In the French philosophical tradition, the theme of the absurd is still present today and has been introduced by phenomenological thinkers such as E. Levinas (the notion of il y a) and M. Blachot (the notion of neutrality). More recently, this style of thought has been revived by thinkers such as A. Comte-Sponville (the notion of hopelessness), Clément Rosset (idiocy) and Marcel Conche (the tragic), among others. However, similar elements can also be traced in thinkers who do not make them the centre of their thought (despair in C. Romano). It will be an examination of conceptions of this tendency, with the intention of presenting an interpretation of the primarily negatively connoted terms that will serve as a starting point for a "positive" understanding of them (tragic wisdom in Conche is an example).