An Existential Life

Suicide, the willful termination of one’s life, has been an important concern for existentialists; ordinarily, it reflects a decision that one’s own life or human life in general is not worth living. [Albert] Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus claims that suicide represents the single most serious, important, and urgent philosophical question, which must be answered before any other question is considered. [Gabriel] Marcel suggests that contemplating the possibility of suicide represents the beginning of any real metaphysical thinking, since the freedom to kill oneself forces one to confront the reality of human existence. In most cases, the temptation to exercise this freedom is derived from anguish and despair. These feelings or moods may be a response to the collapse of one’s systems of meaning and the inability to feel at home in the universe. Though most existentialists insist on the absence of any permanent or fixed meaning that might justify human life or alleviate despair, they do not recognize suicide as an appropriate response to the radical absurdity of life. Lack of justification for one’s life does not mean that it is not worth living. Rather, what is needed in the face of life’s pain and suffering is a heroic commitment to affirm one’s life and to engage in the difficult task of creating meaning for it.