Absurdism

[MorningGlory]

Am I on the right track?

Nebula, you are probably on the right track with caughtinside but your last post gave ME a headache!

[caughtinside]

I have a class of kindergartners whose first language is Chinese and they've been in an immersion English program for about six months. A few days ago, two of my students were getting things out of their lockers, one locker lower than the other, and one student bumped his head on the upper locker's door as he was standing up. He held his head and said to the other student, "What are we DOING?!"

How absurd!

Pretty deep stuff from a five-year-old!

[caughtinside]

So, let me see if I have this straight -

Someone believes logically that there is no meaning to life, that there is no reason for there to be meaning to life; therefore, why bother with anything?

Yes, or at least they can't conclude logically that there is. So, "Why bother" would be a nagging impulse.

But, somewhere in his - I don't know what you would say - will? heart? emotions? - he believes there has to be meaning, that there has to be a reason to have meaning. But, since he doesn't believe in anything that can and should give meaning to life (i.e. God), he is stuck in paradox. Therefore, he finds meaning in absurdity, because, after all, that is all his struggle is about.

Right, like the guy who surprises himself by risking himself for someone else. Or by exercising faith in God, like Kierkegaard. They either find meaning in the absurdity, or in spite of it. "When the rubber hits the road" kind of thing. Like in the line from a Who song--"I got values but I don't know how or why."

It is absurd to believe there is meaning to life when there is nothing to give meaning to life.

Am I on the right track?

Looks good to me! It's absurd to one of the person's way of looking at it, and yet, in another way, they say "this is what I do." Even if the meaning is simply found in the journey. That might be a ray of hope in the Hitchhiker books.....

glory, I hope it's the good kind of headache?

[Joshua-777]

The subject of Absurdism came up in the "celebrities" thread, and I thought it might be interesting to discuss in a thread of its own. I put it in this sub-forum because I think a key difference between absurdism and nihilism is that the former is open to the possibility that there can be values and meaning in a human's life.

I'm not sure if it's okay to pull other people's comments from one thread and paste them in another, so nebula and Grungekid, if this interests you and you'd like to repost your thoughts here, they'll be very welcome.

Here's a thought I had. A nihilist runs into a burning building to save some people. As he does, he observes himself doing it and says, "This is absurd!" And yet, he does it. That, I think, is what Kierkegaard was getting at in the comment I posted in the other thread. Here it is again (Found on the Wikepedia article on absurdism, interesting read):

What is the Absurd? It is, as may quite easily be seen, that I, a rational being, must act in a case where my reason, my powers of reflection, tell me: you can just as well do the one thing as the other, that is to say where my reason and reflection say: you cannot act and yet here is where I have to act... The Absurd, or to act by virtue of the absurd, is to act upon faith ... I must act, but reflection has closed the road so I take one of the possibilities and say: This is what I do, I cannot do otherwise because I am brought to a standstill by my powers of reflection.

All comments on absurdism, nihilism, etc. welcome.

caughtinside

LOL, that is actualy a pretty good pun, I have never heard of Absurdism, but one thing I noticed with modern anarchists is that they confuse anarchy with Nihilism. Anarchy is a Utopian society existing without governmental law, to apply Nihilism to anarchy contradicts the Utopian part, Utopia means pretty much a peaceful, respectful society, which adds a natural form of order, which is impossible to achieve in a society without a governing law. When you mix anarchy with Chaos, it contradicts.