What is absurdism?
Absurdism is a movement that emerged after existentialism (the essence of being), which accompanies the meaninglessness of human life and all things. The beginning of its development was served by numerous wars of the last century, which brought a lot of suffering and took thousands of human lives away.
Representatives of the movement
The philosophy of the absurdity was created by the famous philosopher Seren Kierkegaard, but only in the works of Camus it became a formalized theory, which deserves the attention of a wide range of people. The ardent follower of the movement was also Lev Shestov, whose works deserve close attention of philosophers around the world. If you want to know more about this phenomenon or have any internal conflicts on the basis of absurdity, then read the complete works of its mentioned representatives. BrainApps will briefly describe what each of the philosophers deserved the attention of the whole world.
Seren Kierkegaard
Seren Kierkegaard’s outstanding work in the philosophy of the absurd is ” Fear and Trembling,” where the religion is severely criticized. In fact, the author is not an ardent opponent, but he argues that faith (and religion as its manifestation) is one of the best human paradoxes, which means it is absurd.
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In his book, Kierkegaard analyzes the Bible and is particularly impressed by the moment in which Abraham sacrifices his own son. In his opinion, giving to the murder of a sacral, sacrificial and sublime meaning is an absolute paradox, nonsense. He notes that according to the Holy Scripture man is not free, therefore his existence is absurd and does not make sense.
Albert Camus
The theory of the absurdity of life is found in all the works of Camus, but his famous and popularized work is The Myth of Sisyphus. This book considers absurdity as a confrontation between two ideals: the desire of a person to be meaningful and his understanding of the coldness and soullessness of the universe or God.
After reading the work of Camus, you will understand the following philosophical problems that arise when confronted with absurdity:
- Suicide. Suicide by itself is, in Camus’s opinion, the logical completion of the non-acceptance of reality. For a person who has chosen this path, life itself is an absurdity, one can only get away from it by one way.
- Leap of faith. This concept, which consists in a person’s awareness of his own senselessness, but of humility with it. This includes such concepts as self-deception, narrowness of thinking, laziness of the intellect, deviation from freedom and complete submission to absurd rules.
- Adoption. It consists in the recognition of absurdity and freedom from it. That is, a person encounters his own senselessness in the universe, accepts it and finds a personal, subjective purpose. Thus, the personality itself is transformed into the universe with its own meaning and laws of being.
In the work of Camus, a lot of time is devoted to such a broad concept as the meaning of life. The author analyzes this phenomenon step by step, designates it as one of the most important examples of absurdity.
Leo Shestov
Do you consider yourself a special, absurd person? Refer to the interesting works of the Russian philosopher Lev Shestov. In his writings he actively criticizes the established moral norms, the principles of morality, the prerequisites of human existence accepted in the world.
The meaning of life in the absurd
Since ancient times people are looking for an answer to the question of the meaning of human existence. Some people fully realize that there is nothing, and completely give their own lives in the hands of Providence, religion or other higher forces. Some conclude a meaningless, in their opinion, existence by a suicide. And others find the theory of absurdity the starting point for creating their own causes and principles for life.
Until now, absurdism is a quite popular concept, which many people adhere to. However, the acceptance of its ideals only leads to the fact that it remains to sit on a chair and sit, doing nothing. Is such a life worth something? Isn’t it better to set an unrealistic goal in front of yourself and confidently go towards it? There can be very many points of view to human existence, but whatever man chooses, one must always remain cheerful and stand his positive views on the world. Only this way you can achieve something.
