There are similar ideas concerning the absurd with Sartre and Camus. With Camus, becoming aware of the meaninglessness of life leads to the idea that man is free to live his life freely, even if he were to pay for the consequences of his errors, and man should go through all the joys offered by this world (Le Mythe de Sisyphe, L'Etranger, Caligula, Le Malentendu). With Sartre, in La Nausee, this experience of the absurd should be surmounted. Such gaining of awareness engages man to make use of his freedom. With Camus, man cannot experience but his own freedom, namely freedom of thought and action. Until meeting with the experience of the absurd, he held the illusion of being free, but he was a slave of habits or prejudices that added nothing to his life except an illusion of purpose and value. The discovery of the absurd allows him to see all in a different light: he is totally free starting from the moment when he knows with lucidity his hopeless condition with no tomorrow. It has been suggested that the experience of the absurd is comparable to Descartes' doute methodique. Do you agree?
not trying to be mean or anything , but waht has Reneee Descartes brilliant rationalism of the previous age have to do with Jean paul Sartre? If you would have mentioned Voltaire , I might draw some connection, only cause i see voltaire as the worlds premimnent thinker who drew upon elements of existentailim simply by thinking- a century before the emergence modern existentialist thought!