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The Myth of Sisyphus

Review Quiz

Context

Summary

An Absurd Reasoning: Absurdity and Suicide

An Absurd Reasoning: Absurd Walls

An Absurd Reasoning: Philosophical Suicide

An Absurd Reasoning: Absurd Freedom

The Absurd Man: Don Juanism

The Absurd Man: Drama

The Absurd Man: Conquest

Absurd Creation: Philosophy and Fiction

Absurd Creation: Kirilov

Absurd Creation: Ephemeral Creation

The Myth of Sisyphus

Appendix: The Works of Franz Kafka

Analytical Overview

Themes of the Absurd in The Stranger

Study Questions

Review Quiz

Suggestions for Further Reading

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The Myth of Sisyphus

Albert Camus

Review Quiz

What is the only "truly serious philosophical problem" according to the first sentence of the book?

(A) The absurd

(B) Exile

(D) The ontological argument

Which of the following does Camus associate with the "act of eluding"?

(A) The absurd

(B) Suicide

(D) Exile

Which of the following thinkers would Camus consider a "rationalist"?

(A) Descartes

(B) Heidegger

(D) Husserl

Which of the following thinkers would Camus consider an "irrationalist"?

(A) Hegel

(B) Leibniz

(D) Plato

Where do we find the absurd?

(A) In human reason

(B) In the world

(D) Sometimes in human reason and sometimes in the world

Which of the following philosophers does not embrace irrationality?

(A) Jaspers

(B) Kierkegaard

(D) Husserl

Which of the following is not one of Camus's three consequences of living the absurd?

(A) Revolt

(B) Humility

(D) Passion

When Camus discusses the freedom of the absurd man, what kind of constraint is the absurd man most significantly free from?

(A) The law of God

(B) The laws of physics

(D) His conforming to a certain role in life

Which of the following does Camus not use as an example of an absurd man?

(A) The seducer

(B) The actor

(D) The scientist

Which of the following is true of Don Juan?

(A) He is melancholy

(B) He is repetitive in his techniques of seduction

(D) He will be a miserable old man?

Whose fame is the most short-lived?

(A) An actor's

(B) A writer's

(D) A religious leader's

What did Camus do before the Second World War?

(A) He taught philosophy

(B) He ran a theatre troupe

(D) He lived with his parents

What was Camus doing during the Second World War?

(A) He died before the Second World War started

(B) He was incarcerated in a concentration camp

(D) He was working as a journalist in Algeria

Which of the following could potentially be an absurd man?

(A) A seducer

(B) An office clerk

(D) All of the above

Who epitomizes the absurd life?

(A) The seducer

(B) The actor

(D) The artist

Which of the following is true of the absurd artist?

(A) He must try to explain the world

(B) He must express generalized truths about experience

(D) He must draw a sharp distinction between his art and his philosophy

In what book does Kirilov appear?

(A) The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

(B) The Possessed, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

(D) Building my Zen Garden, by Kieran Egan

Dostoevsky's fiction most resembles the philosophy of which thinker?

(A) Camus

(B) Kierkegaard

(D) Plato

Which of the following does Camus consider to be a consistently absurd novel?

(A) Moby Dick, by Herman Melville

(B) The Possessed, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

(D) The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Which of the following can find its way into an absurd novel?

(A) Hope

(B) Abstract ideas

(D) Philosophical doctrine

Which of the following did Sisyphus NOT do?

(A) Bear witness against Zeus

(B) Enchain the spirit of death

(D) Trick the gods into granting him a second life after his death

Which aspect of Sisyphus's fate differs from his life?

(A) It is a futile struggle

(B) It goes on forever

(D) He is aware of his fate

If Camus were to dramatize the myth of Sisyphus, what kind of drama would it be?

(A) Comedy

(B) Melodrama

(D) Epic

In which of Kafka's works does Camus most clearly identify an existential leap?

(A) The Trial

(B) The Castle

(D) Amerika

During which war was The Myth of Sisyphus published?

(A) World War I

(B) World War II

(D) The Franco-Prussian War

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Philosophy