Post Number 2: In love with impossible questions and some top absurdist thinkers
 |
| Bill Wahl, Absurd Man Tour Guide |
What is "the absurd": Part Two
Absurdism or the notion of "the absurd" if often misunderstood, or more likely, it isn't known about in the first place. It is certainly on the fringe of philosophy, and as a school of thinking struggles to be properly understood. Absurdism is a highly credible school of thought in terms of philosophical validity, but it also can be instrumental in helping individuals reflect on how they want to create their lives. The Algerian-French Philosopher Albert Camus gave a general definition of the term "absurd" as a precursor to explaining what this term means in a philosophical sense. In The Myth of Sisyphus he wrote: "If I see a man armed with a sword attack a group of machine guns, I shall consider his act to be absurd. The magnitude of the absurdity will be in direct ratio to the distance between the two terms of comparison. There are absurd marriages, challenges, rancours, silences, wars, and even peace treaties. For each of them the absurd springs from a comparison [between an aspiration and reality]". As concerns Absurdism, the human need for inherent (or intrinsic) meaning and the universe's refusal to offer it up creates a contradiction - the apprehension of this contradiction is the human experience of absurdity.
In the 1940's and 50's Camus was a pretty cool guy. What James Dean was to the cinema, Camus was to philosophy, drama, and fiction. If you don't like him with the cigarette, use google images and you will find plenty of shots of him looking more academic, e.g. wrinkled tweed jacket and pipe.
In Love with Impossible Questions
Human Beings seem to have a very difficult time accepting the absurd nature of existence. We want to escape the absurd and we generally do that by adopting some ideology which is meant to explain how it is that I exist and what THE point of existence is, i.e. most people just want someone or something to tidy up all the cosmic mess. Our need to escape from the confusion of existence seems understandable. After all, we know that we are going to age, that we are going to get sick at times, that we may suffer chronic pain, incur some awful losses, and we can be sure that we are going to die.
1. Why is there something rather that nothing? This was Martin Heidegger's famous question.
2. Is our universe real? If we really knew the answer to this question with absolute certainty there would have been no point in making the movie The Matrix (first film), because that was what that film explored. The Matrix 2 and 3 were just rubbish, as we all know.
3. Does God Exist? Even theists have to admit that their believe in God is an act of faith. An act of faith is a belief I hold (some would say cling to) in the absence of being able to prove or know with certainty that my belief is true.
4. Is there life after death? Well, no-one seems to have come back from the dead to answer this one, except possibly Jesus, and this of course reminds us that faith is involved again.
6. Are numbers real? Mathematicians have (believe it or not) written entire books on this question.
Absurdism asks that we face existence with our eyes open, that we prefer truth to everything else (like security, connection to a community of people, or a trophie). Seeing the world through the lense of absurdity seems to have a peculiar effect on those who can bear to do it. Absurdism is a bit depressing and scary... but it's an awful lot liberating. It's depressing and scary because I am no longer able to escape from the harsh reality of existance, but it's liberating because if no one or nothing can explain existence with certitude, then I am free to create my life in my own way and on my terms. I am no longer bound by any ideology which idealizes existence or explains away what has no business being explained away. It takes a lot of courage to be able to say "I don't know".
Some Top Absurdist Philosophers (in chronological order)
Socreties was absolutely fearless in the manner he asked questions (a practice which became know as the Socratic method) and he never rested in his attempt to get to the truth. Like all good absurdists, he never did get to the truth concerning the truly important questions, which is why he famously said, "All I know is that I know nothing". And yet he was willing to die rather than stop questioning, which had been annoying the local authorities. Great bloke.
Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) Danish
Freud knew about anxiety. Kierkegaard knew anxiety! Kierkegaard wrote 7,000 pages of journals in which he made a searching examination of the nature of human existence, and what he discovered was that anxiety and uncertainty are at the core of life. And yet, he believed that one must find meaning in a world of uncertainty. He wrote, "The crucial thing is to find a truth which is truth for me, to find the idea for which I am willing to live and die".
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German
Another fearless questioner who claimed that "God was dead". Having dealt God a big punch to the gut, Nietzsche enabled other thinkers to appreciate that maybe we do live in an absurd universe. He wore an incredibly bushy mustache and wrote a book called The Gay Science, which seemed like a good title choice at the time.
German
Heidegger was hugely influenced by Kierkegaard and in turn was very influential on philosophers such as Sartre. Very difficult to quickly sum up his huge body of thought, but his profound interest in nothingness (death), time, and meaning made him a huge influence on absurdist thinking. Having said that, reading Heidegger is about as enjoyable as hitting yourself repeatedly in the side of the head with a ball-pean hammer.
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
French
Absurdism is closely related to the philosophy of Existentialism, and some would say that Sartre IS existentialism. Sartre held a radical position on humanities's capacity for freedom and held that we must be responsible for creating meaning. Along with Camus, he explicitly wrote about the nature of existence as absurd, and much within his fiction and plays explores the difficulties of living in a world with no intrinsic meaning.
Albert Camus (1913-1960) French-Algerian
No one is more closely associated with Absurdism that Camus, mainly because Camus placed the absurd nature of existence at the very center of his philosophical thought. He was probably Sartre's best friend for many years, but they fell out famously over a difference in opinion concerning Soviet Communism (Sartre backed it, Camus would not accept the violence under Stalin). Sartre's long-time girlfriend Simone De Beauvour once asked Camus to sleep with her. He said no, but this probably didn't help matters. Camus was quite critical of philosophers who explored the absurdity of existence, but then tried to find some way to escape from it. He was critical of Kierkegaard for taking a "leap of faith" into Christianity, criticle of Sartre for eluding absurdity by his belief in the historical development of humanity through communism, and he probably would have criticized Nietzche for notions such as eternal recurrence.
Stay tuned for further updates of Absurdism Today. Next month we explore the relationship between comedy and the absurd and you get to see some completly absurd public signs.
Please check out B. Wahl's novel, The Art of Impossibility, on Amazon. Search using the title.
