Last modified on September 6, 2011, at 03:46

Absurdism

Absurdism is a philosophy which asserts that it is humanly impossible (and therefore absurd) to find meaning in the universe because either such a meaning does not exist or cannot be reached by humanity (e.g. epistemic distance).

It is rather similar to existentialism and nihilism and derives from the work of the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. It was further developed by French philosopher Albert Camus in "The Myth of Sisyphus".

It was popular in France post-World War II.

The Meaning of Life

Absurdism claims that there are two possible explanations for the meaning of life - that it is meaningless, or to serve a higher power, such as God. However, absurdism then poses the question of what God's purpose is. Kierkegaard claimed God defies human understanding, and therefore faith in God is absurd (not in an atheistic sense, but claiming that deriving an explanation from that which cannot be understood serves no purpose), though Camus took a harsher view, calling faith in God "philosophical suicide". It is important to note, however, that Camus stated that absurdism leads to neither belief in God or denial of God - "I did not say 'excludes God', which would still amount to asserting".