Absurdism

The philosophical notion of the absurd is very abstract but present in all of our lives.

The absurd is this jarring realization that despite the fact that we naturally want to have a meaning and purpose in life, we aren’t able to because our universe is meaningless 

We all encounter this phenomena eventually but how we deal with it is completely on us. A few people have done work on the absurd in the field of philosophy.

In the primary work on Absurdism, The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus spends a large portion of the book trying to explain the abstract concept known as the Absurd, on page 29 of the VIntage International version, he says;

 “ ‘It’s absurd’ means ‘It’s impossible’ but also ‘It’s contradictory.’ If I see a man armed only with a sword attack a group of machine guns, I shall consider his act to be absurd. But it is so solely by virtue of the disproportion between his intention and the reality he will encounter, of the contradiction I notice between his true strength and the aim he has in view.” (Camus, Albert The Myth of Sisyphus pg. 29).

This is also applicable when we look at someone trying to find meaning from a meaningless universe.

The first to notably contribute was Soren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard once said, “As the reality of God is beyond human comprehension, it is absurd for humans to have faith in God.” 

Quote provided by but unsourced by BBC Ideas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoePDl14Eyc&t=86s

Soren Kierkegaard provided the idea of the absurd when he uses the term anxiety, “anxiety is the dizziness of freedom” used in The Concept of Anxiety. However, Kierkegaard’s answer to this problem of anxiety or the absurd is a leap of faith. Address the anxiety by limiting the cause. You can limit the causes by believing in God. All knowledge and meaning is derivative of a value set by God

What, then, is the absurd? The absurd is that the eternal truth has come into existence in time, that God has come into existence, has been born, has grown up. etc., has come into existence exactly as an individual human being, indistinguishable from any other human being, in as much as all immediate recognizability is pre-Socratic paganism and from the Jewish point of view is idolatry.

—Kierkegaard, Concluding Unscientific Postscript, 1846, Hong 1992, p. 210 

Source Concluding Unscientific Postscript by Soren Kierkegaard

To Camus this is philosophical suicide. In “Myth of Sisyphus” Albert Camus establishes himself as the leading philosopher on the absurd. At the beginning of the text, Camus extends what he believes to be, the most important philosophical question; “There is but one serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.” 

–Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, 1942 p.3

Camus argues that to put hope and a sense of meaning in God or some higher being is taking the easy way out. By committing to this leap of faith, Camus claims we give up the ability to find our own meaning by putting stock in God. He makes it clear that he isn’t judging that belief in God. He clarifies this on page 41 and in the footnotes on page 42. Camus says;

“I am taking the liberty at this point of calling the existential attitude philosophical suicide. But this does not imply judgement, It is a convenient way of indicating the movement by which a thought negates itself and tends to transcend itself in it very negation, For the existential negation is their God. To be precise, that god is maintained only through the negation of human reason.” (Camus, Albert The Myth of Sisyphus pg 41-42).

In the footnotes he follows up on this paragraph writing, “Let me assert again: it is not the affirmation of God that is questioned here, but rather the logic leading to that affirmation.” 

Let’s unpack these two quotes. The first is saying that this leap of faith is philosophical suicide, he isn’t poking fun at those who believe in God, rather he thinks its a perfectly reasonable way to deal with the absurd. HIs issue however, is that by believing in God, humans are giving up their ability to reason. This is also the case in the next quote. Camus says, “Let me assert again; it is not the affirmation of God that is questioned here…” he doesn’t care about believing in God, it could be any god or leap of faith, he goes on to say, “but rather the logic leading to that affirmation.” This way of thinking is known as phenomenological analysis. Frankly, you don’t have to know what that means in depth but basically it’s trying to understand why someone has come to think what they think. 

On page 47 and 48 of “Myth of Sisyphus” he says, “The abstract philosopher and the religious philosopher start out from the same disorder and support each other in the same anxiety.” Both philosophers recognize the absurd and are plagued by it. The ways they deal with it are different. The abstract philosopher here recognizes and embraces the condition of absurdity while the religious philosopher attempts to escape it. This is the why of believing in the leap of faith as a solution. It is easier to suspend reason and avoid the absurd than it is to face it.

Now that we have thoroughly discussed what the absurd is, we can discuss how to deal with it. Albert Camus offers three solutions, two of which we have talked about. 

The three ways to deal with the absurd are:

Suicide

Philosophical suicide (or a leap of faith)

And Recognition

In the same way that philosophical suicide is an escape from the absurd, physical suicide is also a way to avoid facing the anxiety of the absurd. To Camus, suicide is also an easy way out. It is confessing that life is too hard and not worth living. To the absurd man, as Camus would put it, by committing suicide you are depriving yourself of the passions and beauty that life can offer. Therefore, Camus rejects this solution as a reasonable way to deal with the absurd.

Since we previously discussed the solution that is the philosophical leap, we can move on to the final solution, which Camus supports. 

In order to deal with the absurd we should recognize it and find ways to appreciate it there are three parts included in recognizing it. This is how you should deal with the absurd should you choose to recognize it.

On page 64, Camus points out these three consequences in the second paragraph, “Thus I draw from the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom and my passion. By the mere activity of consciousness I transform into a rule of life what was an invitation to death- and I refuse suicide.” (Camus, Albert, The Myth of Sisyphus, pg.64)

To break this down, we should work to understand the meaning of these three consequences. 

When he uses the word “revolt” it is in reference to the refusing to commit suicide, essentially the absurd man will attempt to find his own meaning in spite of the absurd. 

Camus says, “my freedom” in regards to the limitations of religion, especially on the ability to reason.

Finally the term “passion” is allowing yourself to experience the fullness of life. To Camus, the worst way to go about recognizing the absurd is obsessing over it. When you focus on reasoning through something unreasonable, you deprive yourself from the beautiful aspects of life. 

 We will come back to The Myth of Sisyphus momentarily, but this is the perfect opportunity to introduce a work of fiction by Albert Camus known as The Stranger, also translated as The Outsider. The Stranger was written a year after Myth of Sisyphus but published the same year. In The Stranger we follow an absurd man by the name of Meursault, the opening line is, “Mother died today. Or maybe it was yesterday. I don’t know.” (Camus, Albert The Stranger pg. 3). Much of The Stranger  is written in these short, impersonal sentences that gives the reader a sense of indifference. Meursault cares very little about almost everything. He allows himself to take in simple pleasures of day to day life but doesn’t strive for some lofty goal. He knows this is pointless, absurd. He enjoys what is available to him. His only frustrations in the book are from the sun and it’s inescapable sun of Algeria, what was then a French territory. His hate of the sun and the fact that he goes with the flow leads him down a dangerous path where his indifference costs him everything. The correlation I would like to point out is that he disregards negative things in his life as unimportant and focuses on the simple pleasures.

This is what we ought to imagine Sisyphus should do when he pushes the boulder up the mountain for eternity. The reasons and traditions change when it comes to why Sisyphus was condemned to this fate but for the sake of time, you can rest assured knowing he was the king of Corinth and had tricked the gods and they banished him to the underworld to push a boulder up a mountain everyday only for it to fall down when he reached the top.

Camus draws a parallel to us with Sisyphus. We are doomed to work thankless jobs and go home tired everyday just to do it again the next. He says that the interesting part lies in the descent down the mountain, after the boulder has fallen. Camus says, “That hour like a breathing space which returns as surely as his suffering, that is the hour of consciousness. At each of those moments when he leaves the heights and gradually sinks toward the lairs of the gods, he is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock.” (Camus, Albert The Myth of Sisyphus pg. 121).

Sisyphus is choosing to go back to his rock, despite knowing it is meaningless and causes him pain. Sisyphus doesn’t give up or kill himself, rather he goes back to the boulder to do it again. There has to be some bad in every good. The argument applies the other way around, there has to be some good in the bad. Camus argues that we have to focus on being happy despite everything else. In the last paragraph he writes, “I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one’s burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes all is well.” (Camus, Albert The Myth of Sisyphus pg. 123). 

Sisyphus then takes ownership of his burden and finds ways to enjoy it. He becomes stronger by pushing the boulder, he gets to see what is beyond the mountain everyday, he can find easier ways to get it up the mountain and he can focus on the ways the mountain and boulder changes everyday. Camus famously writes, “ One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” (Camus, Albert The Myth of Sisyphus pg.123).

Oppositions to absurdism

It’s likely that anyone who disagrees with notions set forth by existentialism also disagrees with absurdism. That’s not to say that people who disagree with absurdism don’t believe in the absurd. Remember absurdism is how you deal with the absurd. Since absurdism claims there is no meaning in the universe or by higher power, anyone who believes we are given meaning by a divine being or concept disagree by definition.  

Some might be inclined to say this is a privileged philosophy. Only people who aren’t greatly affected by problems can ignore them completely or only focus on the good. While that’s fair, it’s important to be aware of the fact that this was written during World War 2 and Camus came from poverty. That doesn’t mean he is an authority on oppression or this can apply to everyone but it’s a way to keep sane in a world full of despair. 

Further Reading

The Myth of Sisyphus has had a tremendous impact on my life and has helped me in many ways. 

The Stranger– Camus

Fear and Trembling– Kierkegaard

Thus Spoke Zarathustra– Nietzsche I know we haven’t talked about Nietzsche today but this offers a different way to approach the absurd that Camus didn’t talk about.