Beginning With the Question That Awakens You
Begin with the question that awakens you; persistence will answer. — Albert Camus
A Question as an Alarm Clock for the Soul
Albert Camus invites us to notice the first question that genuinely startles us awake, the one that disrupts routine and demands attention. Rather than treating questions as abstract puzzles, he treats them as alarm clocks for the soul, signaling that something essential in us is stirring. In works like *The Myth of Sisyphus* (1942), Camus argues that the most basic philosophical question is whether life is worth living, underscoring how certain questions cut through distraction and reveal what truly matters.
From Restlessness to Focused Inquiry
Once such a question has awakened us, Camus suggests that our restlessness can be transformed into focused inquiry. Instead of drifting from one shallow curiosity to another, we begin orienting our energy toward the single issue that will not let us go. This mirrors Socrates in Plato’s *Apology* (c. 399 BC), who refuses to abandon his central question—how to live justly—despite social pressure. Thus, inner disturbance becomes the starting point for a disciplined search rather than mere anxiety.
Persistence as a Form of Answering
Camus’s second claim—that persistence will answer—shifts our understanding of what an answer is. Answers are not simply facts delivered from outside; they often emerge slowly through the act of staying with a problem. By repeatedly returning to the same question in different circumstances, we refine our perspective and deepen our understanding. In this way, persistence itself becomes a method, similar to the scientific process where repeated experiments gradually clarify what is true and what is not.
The Practice of Living With a Question
Living with a central question requires patience and tolerance for ambiguity. Rather than demanding immediate clarity, we allow experiences, relationships, and failures to illuminate different facets of the issue. Rainer Maria Rilke, in *Letters to a Young Poet* (1903–1908), advises to “live the questions now,” trusting that one day we will “live our way into the answer.” Camus’s remark aligns with this posture: the answer is less a sudden revelation and more a shape that gradually appears as we continue to engage.
Personal Identity Shaped by the Questions We Keep
Over time, the questions we persist in asking begin to shape who we are. A person devoted to the question of justice will live differently from someone absorbed by the question of beauty or freedom. Camus’s own novels, such as *The Plague* (1947), show characters tested by an ongoing question—how to act with integrity amid absurd suffering—and their identities crystallize around their responses. Thus, beginning with the question that awakens us is also a way of choosing our trajectory as a person.
When the Answer Is a Way of Living
Finally, Camus hints that the ‘answer’ may not be a tidy sentence but a way of life shaped by enduring inquiry. Persistence clarifies values, reveals limits, and gradually aligns our daily choices with what matters most. In this sense, the question that awakens us is less a problem to be solved than a compass to be followed. By remaining faithful to it, we find not only partial solutions but also a coherent form of existence that quietly responds, in action, to what first stirred us awake.