How did Albert Camus describe the existential predicament? As Camus grew up, he saw a lot of suffering and death around him. This led to his main philosophical question: “Is there any reason not to commit suicide?” which according to him arose in a person when he began to see the world as it really is. To truly see the world, a person must stop lying to himself and look at the world without any distorted view he may have had before. Once they do that, they will see the world as it is: absurd. Since most people cannot see the world for its true nature, they waste their lives deceiving themselves; making themselves strangers to their fundamental needs. The basic needs are “the need for clarity or understanding and the need for social warmth or contact”. The lack of social warmth is due to the fact that humans maintain an overall solitary existence. Relationships are created because they are expected, not because people want them. The need for understanding is due to the unclear world in which people live. According to Camus, the world is absurd and there is no reason for things to happen the way they do. Do. Absurdity implies injustice and lack of morals or values. People have to make choices every day to decide how to act, but there are no guidelines because there are no values. Why is modern man so alienated, alone and unhappy according to Heidegger? There are many reasons; the first is the absence of Sinn (a meaning of being, translated to Sinn von Sein) (Almäng) which is said to be the “problem of existence”. Human beings are thrown into the world and experience many things that they do not understand. This creates anxiety and distress for a person, leading to unhappiness, neither of which a person... middle of paper... had a better outcome than that choice would have had.' Responsibility can best be described in Sartre quote, “In fashioning myself, I fashion the man.” Sartre gave each person the responsibility to define humanity. That every decision should be made as if the world is watching. This seems heavy-handed, because most people's decisions about grains don't affect the world. However, people in positions of authority must make decisions every day that impact the lives of hundreds or thousands of people. Works Cited Almäng, J. Philosophical Communications, Web Series, No 51. Department of Philosophy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.. University of Gothenburg. Retrieved April 20, 2014, from http://www.flov.gu.se/digitalAssets/1274/1274124_heidegger_on_sinn.pdfSartre Minutes. Southern Methodist University, Faculty. Retrieved April 20, 2014, from http://faculty.smu.edu/jkazez/mol09/Sartre%20Handout.htm