Albert Camus, Ernest Becker, and the Art of Living in Existential Paradox.

This article examines the existential paradox—often called the paradox of the absurd—and its impact on human behavior through a comparative analysis of Albert Camus’s and Ernest Becker’s works. Both thinkers address humanity’s fundamental tension between the desire for absolute meaning and the awareness of life’s inherent meaninglessness, linking this paradox to mental illness, societal violence, and destructive behaviors arising from attempts to secure transcendent meaning systems. While Becker focuses on unconscious psychological defenses and cultural “hero systems” that symbolically deny death, Camus explores conscious responses to absurdity, advocating for lucid acceptance and rebellion without appeal to transcendent hope. Both conclude that creative expression, particularly absurd art, offers a vital means to live authentically with existential paradox, maintaining awareness without resorting to illusions or destructive reactions.