Absurdism and Existentialism

1. Absurdism and Existentialism By: Ava, Ash, Adnan and Kevin

2. Existentialism • Humans are born and each individual spends their lifetime creating their essence or nature • Philosophy concerned with finding self and the meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal responsibility

3. Existential Philosophers • Søren Kierkegaard • Prioritize concrete reality over abstract thought. He viewed personal choice and commitment as preeminent • Friedrich Nietzsche • Believed in the individual’s creative capacity to resist social norms and cultural convention in order to live according to a greater set of virtues

4. “Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.” -Jean-Paul Sartre • Argued that the existence of free will is evidence of the universe’s indifference to the individual • Freedom to act toward objects is essentially meaningless and therefore of no consequence to be intervened upon by the world

5. Absurdism • Belief that all humans exist in a meaningless universe • Trying to find purpose in life is absurd

6. ¨The Absurd¨ • Human need to seek value/meaning in life vs. human inability to find any • Live in a purposeless, meaningless, chaotic, irrational universe

7. Absurdist Philophosphers • Albert Camus • Life has no meaning, nothing existing could ever be a source of meaning, and hence there is something deeply absurd about the human desire to find meaning • What was the point of living if you thought that life could never have meaning?

8. Similarities and Differences • Both believe humans have a need for meaning, though the universe gives no answers • Both wonder how to live with the meaningless of life • Existentialists believe humans have freedom/free will and make life meaningful by exercising their freedom • Absurdists believe free will doesn’t exist; humans invented it to avoid despair