Absurdism: Finding Meaning in a Meaningless World

 

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Absurdism is a philosophy based on the belief that the universe is irrational and meaningless and that the search for order brings the individual into conflict with the universe.

While many philosophers seek the meaning of life and reason for being, French-Algerian writer and philosopher Albert Camus believed that life itself has no intrinsic meaning at all. This philosophy was fully explored in his written works, most prominent in his essay, The Myth of Sisyphus. He wrote,

“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.”

It sounds depressing. The more a person becomes aware of his existence and finding the meaning of life in the midst of chaos, the more he becomes confused.

“The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world.”

Animals are saved from this problem. They exist primarily in this world just to survive: finding food, the constant need for safety from predators, and reproduction. Whereas humans, because of their higher level of consciousness, have the constant need to find meaning in an otherwise indifferent world. As Carl Jung said,

“Men can’t stand a meaningless life.”

And Victor Frankl,

“Man’s search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life….”

A Futile Struggle

A man’s struggle to find meaning despite the universe’s indifference is what makes human life absurd.

We are all facing the ugly reality that we will all die and return to dust. That our lives are futile, no matter how we make our lives significant. A strongman who thinks that his idea is better than anybody, a great poet who can create a masterpiece that will be read by generations to come, a beautiful actress who became legendary because of early death, a mother who nurtures you, a teacher who molds you, and you who struggles to become better every day -- sleeping, waking up, eating, working – all these make life a pointless merry-go-round with no end but death.

To Camus, humans have three options to escape absurdity:

1. Physical Suicide 

It is the admittance or “confession” that life has no meaning at all and terminating its existence and its place in the universe is the only way out of absurdity.

2. Leap of Faith 

In finding for meaning, a man finds solace in religion. Because man fails to find answers through reason, he tries to find them through believing that there is a supernatural being who holds all of the answers. These kinds of men like the idea that there’s a heaven or Nirvana. They are hoping that their daily struggles and good deeds will be rewarded afterlife. To Camus, believing in religion is like committing a psychological suicide because man is using an easy way out instead of having the determination and patience in finding the answers himself and he must so as his existential duty.

3. Recognition

The best option of the three is recognizing the absurdity and confronting the ugly truth that life has no inherent meaning and trying to find so is futile.

“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”

Frankl’s words come into mind;

“For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself….”

Facing the absurdity of human condition and accepting it makes a person an absurd hero. An absurd hero finds happiness in his struggles in finding meaning in his existence.

Human Life in Universal level

“I looked up at the mass of signs and stars in the night sky and laid myself open for the first time to the benign indifference of the world.”

Man’s existence in the world is only a minute fraction compared to other creatures that roamed on earth billions of years ago. And earth’s very existence is also young compared to countless other planets in the universe. If we’re going to think deeply about it, human lives, including its achievements and failures, are inconsequential.

Here’s another from Carl Sagan on the vastness of the universe and mankind’s insignificance;

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there -- on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

Rebellion for Happiness

Camus said that acceptance of the absurd is the only solution to this problem. Our lives might inconsequential, we might have no idea how long we are going to live, and we might never find the key to happiness, but the only way to live a fulfilling life is to live freely and that is living according to one’s own wishes.

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”

 “I rebel; therefore I exist.”

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