The Absurd

Søren Kierkegaard (pictured) is thought of as the first absurdist philosopher. He developed a suitable existential philosophy for confronting human crises concerning our absurd existences, influencing Albert Camus, who is famous for using the 'Absurd' in his literary work.

Existentialism is a philosophical topic that draws much attention. Rarely, though, is there much clarity. This is particularly true for the ‘Absurd’.

Deep thinkers, with their profound and incessant questions, have a way of reaching the absurd conditions of their lives. But what does this all really mean to them? Arnold P. Hinchliffe, through Michael Esslin, offers the following account—and we really like it.

'The number of people for whom God is dead has greatly increased since Nietzsche published Thus Sprach Zarathustra. The Absurd is one of the ways of facing up to a universe that has lost its meaning and purpose, where we are "stripped of the accidental circumstances of social position or historical context, confronted with basic choices, the basic situation of existence." Relatively few problems then remain: life, death, isolation … One can only communicate their "most intimate and personal intuition of the human situation, their own sense of being, their individual vision of the world."'

What do you think?

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