Chapter 47 Chapter Summary

Taylor acknowledges that the question of the meaning of life is difficult to render intelligible, but he claims that it nevertheless presses itself on reflective people and requires a significant answer. In an attempt to provide such an answer, he considers the myth of Sisyphus and sketches its parallels to the natural world and to our own lives. Rather than despair at the pointlessness suggested by the image, Taylor argues that if we could imagine Sisyphus with an irrational but deeply rooted desire to push rocks, we would have to think of him as happy. An objectively pointless life in which we take great interest is far better than a life of meaningful but boring tasks that fail to answer what our deepest inclinations would be.