Absurdism and Existentialism By Ava Ash Adnan and

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

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

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

● 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 “Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. ” -Jean-Paul Sartre

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

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

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?

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