Is life absurd
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Is life absurd
- Theophane
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Re: Is life absurd
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Re: Is life absurd
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- Dawson
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Re: Is life absurd
The 'absurd', as Camus conceives it if I understand him correctly, is best exemplified in L'Etranger when Mersault is alone in his cell, awaiting execution after rejecting the priest's remonstrations against his indifference to religion and personal salvation.XavierAlex wrote:Please define "absurd"? It's been awhile since I've read The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus. I think if you begin to define it in some way, it would make things clearer. Absurdity, if I recall, is like Sisyphus triumphing over pushing the boulder up the hill. In the brief moments, when Sisyphus is walking down the hill to retrieve the boulder, he happily accepts his fate, because he is doomed for eternity to do so. I'm sure the Absurdist philosophy has many other angles, but that is what I remember most. And that The Stranger has a great beginning: "Maman died today, or was it yesterday..."
Looking at the stars, he feels the "sublime indifference of the universe" (If my memory serves me) and realizes the absurdity of the human condition; that they should ask what are to them the most profoundly important questions of a universe utterly incapable of supplying an answer in any form.
- Theboombody
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Re: Is life absurd
G-rated Shock Value - "No bad words. Just bad ideas."
- Msl0012au
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- Hereandnow
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- Etrnge
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Re: Is life absurd
The term "absurd" can be a bit tricky to exactly pinpoint down in a philosophical context, but the main description he gives is that the feeling of absurdity (Similar to Sartre's 'Nausea' in a way) occurs in all people when they cannot understand something and realize that there is nothing more than the point they themselves give to life. And during this process of thinking, humans give the things that are illogical, reasons because it is by nature that we have 'blindly' accepted aspects of life that we cannot understand."At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face." (Camus)
The solution Camus gives, is to pave your way through society with the freedom we are born with. So, in a sense, anything that happens to us, whether it be death or living, we can ultimately choose the way we die and the way we live.
In conclusion, one could infer from his works and others such as Kirkegaard, Sartre and Nietzsche, that life indeed is absurd.
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Re: Is life absurd
If "absurd" means "ridiculous" or "ludicrous" or "laughable", it's tied in with how people view it, and obviously some people think of life as absurd. Me, I don't think of life as ridiculous, even though it's ultimately meaningless in the grand scheme of things, so for me it isn't absurd.
If "absurd" means "the quality or condition of existing in a meaningless and irrational world" - as some dictionaries give as an alternate meaning - presumably because Camus and existentialists stated as such - then it by that definition is absurd.
So like so many other issues, it all depends on your definition, boring as that answer may be.
- Hereandnow
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Re: Is life absurd
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Re: Is life absurd
Of course in real life if someone were constantly trying to kill us no matter how many times we prevailed, and survived, and killed or vanquished the bad guy, we would think what a tragic, and absurd existence. You got all these bad, life threatening events constantly happening to you and possibly your loved ones, how horrible for you. But if it happens in a movie to John McClane, or Indiana Jones, or any number of nameless heroes played by Clint Eastwood in his younger days, we are made happy by the entertainment. In fact if there isn't enough action going on we start tuning out don't we? We're like man there's nothing happening, how boring is that? I want my money back. I thought this was an action movie. You see how that works? In one moment we root for the absurd and the tragic, and in another moment we are driven into existential crises because of the absurd and the tragic.
Now that I see the tragic side of all the action I took for granted as a kid, I feel drawn to create heroes who are going through some kind of existential crises, who are not mentally well, who are not in good, stable relationships, and are suffering with the same kinds of conditions that have caused some to hang themselves, or jump off a bridge. When the action happens, even though they kick ass and prevail (hey I gotta pay bills and give people what they are paying to see) you see them being rattled by the tragedy of the action. You feel and see the emotional toll it takes on them. Part of the reason why I do this is to answer the question for myself of how a hero deals with the absurdity of life. So far I like what I see.
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- Rubenjameshg
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- Whythislife
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Re: Is life absurd
It has been absurd for me up to this point. I am almost 29 years old and have known intense suffering. Perhaps as I embark on my career and begin to positively impact others it will seem less absurd. I do not desire many material goods. I just want to live simply and ethically. Life seems to me like some type of intense trial. Sometimes I entertain the thought that our environment is a simulation. I have enjoyed learning more about the Simulation Theory proposed by professor Nick Bostrom of Oxford on a youtube video.
Mostly I am left with an empty feeling. I am left longing for something more out of this life. I have learned to embrace suffering because it has been so much a part of my life. The more I live the more I realize the absurdity of this existence.
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