Absurdism vs Nihilism Explanations and Differences (What is Absurdism and Nihilism?)

what's the difference between nihilism and absurdism is there any upon an initial reading both philosophies may sound similar since both have to do with a lack of meaning and purpose in the world but there are some considerable and essential differences which i'm going to cover in this short video now first i'm going to go over what existential nihilism associated with the philosophy of frederick and nietzsche is and what absurdism associated with the philosopher of their camus is then i'll compare and contrast them so you can see the differences now if you like this video at any point please consider giving it a thumbs up as it helps this type of content get ranked in the algorithm over some of the more mind-numbing stuff youtube typically shows so first let's cover nihilism existential nihilism is the belief that life has no intrinsic meaning or value it suggests that each human even the entire human species is insignificant without purpose and unlikely to change in existence totality just to note the word nihilism may refer to several different views in philosophy for example there's metaphysical nihilism moral nihilism partial nihilism and more including existential nihilism which this video is going to focus on the word nihilism was first introduced by frederick jacoby a german philosopher and socialite however it's mostly associated with frederick nietzsche and frequently appears throughout many of his philosophical works nietzsche never advocated for nihilism and some philosophers including myself considered him more of an existentialist which we'll get into he was however the first philosopher to seriously study and write about nihilism nietzsche wrote about how the decline of christianity had ushered in a state of nihilism in europe that needed to be solved and overcome see we used to get our meaning and purpose from the church and god but now that god is dead at least according to nietzsche people may fall into despair since it appears that we're just meaningless animals in a meaningless universe as he wrote in his work the will to power nihilism appears at that point not that the displeasure of existence has become greater than before but because one has come to mistrust any meaning and suffering indeed in existence it now seems as if there is no meaning at all in existence as if everything were in vain in his work such as human alter human he talked about how brutal nihilism can be and living in a world without the comfort of religious dogmas can be depressing perhaps you've had times in your life where you felt directionless powerless and that nothing mattered however he believed that nihilism could be overcome and wish to hasten the departure of it he wrote about two types of nihilism active and passive nihilism the passive nihilism recognizes that there will never be any meaning in the world and passive nihilists should try to separate themselves from their wills and desires to reduce suffering as much as possible he called this a will to nothingness ultimately though this wilked nothingness is still a will and thus will end up being a futile attempt that ends up in deep despair of the individual of embracing a mass movement once again to find some sort of meaning on the other hand one could be an active nihilist if there if this was a possibility for us we should try to choose this option i didn't think that everyone had it in them to be an active nihilist by the way active nihilists are individuals who actively destroy our old fake false values like those in christianity and begin to construct our own subjective beliefs and interpretations of meaning like a sculpture we bash away false meaning and start to chisel out our very own by writing about active nihilism nietzsche is really one of the first existential philosophers which leads us to french philosopher albert camus in the existential movement of the 20th century the french existential movement included philosophers such as john paul sartre samanthi bavar camus and others was basically a response to nihilism and what we should do about it existentialists believe the world intrinsically has no objective meaning similar to nihilus but through a combination of free will awareness and personal responsibility we can and in some views should create our own subjective meaning in life absurdism is one of these such responses just to be clear absurdism isn't the same as the existentialism associated associated with john paul sartre although the two philosophies have aspects that overlap they arrive at vastly different conclusions so what specifically is the philosophy of absurdism then well according to absurdism it's only natural for humans to seek out meaning in life however a conflict occurs when we go to do so and find that the universe is really cold chaotic and utterly devoid of any meaning at all it's this contradiction between our minds search for meaning and the reality of nature that absurdism's founder albert camus calls the absurd unfortunately we have no choice but to confront reality and solve this dilemma so how do we do that camus says we have three options and we have to choose one the first one is suicide which isn't a good idea according to kamu suicide only makes the absurd more absurd and it ends your life which was sort of a miracle to begin with there's option two the leap of faith basically we can do what camus refers to as commit philosophical suicide and pretend there's a higher power that gives our life meaning in other words god we have to pretend that make-believe was actual truth and accept a limited role of freedom in our lives by accepting the imposed moral codes of faith while we may be suppressing what we truly believe and want deep down and finally we have option three whereas we can embrace the absurd and realize that we're truly free from there we're free to pursue anything we want and try to embrace what life really has to offer camus said we should pick option three and chose to illustrate his philosophy in his famous book the myth of sisyphus the story entails sisyphus a character in ancient greek mythology who was banished to push a border up a mountain only for it to roll back down again to have him push up again for eternity camus says our lives are a lot like that of sisyphus it's impossible to really know the meaning of anything and many unavoidable hardships will happen during our lives camus writes that we have to imagine sisyphus happy despite his circumstance we're all stuck rolling meaningless boaters up hills in a way so why not be the happiest we can and enjoy the process okay so what's the difference between nihilism and absurdism then nihilists specifically passive nihilists believe that there's no intrinsic meaning in life and it's futile to seek or affirm meaning where none can be found that's where the philosophy essentially ends absurdists on the other hand hesitantly allow the possibility for some meaning or value in life yes there's certainly no objective meaning in life and we can't possibly begin to understand the universe or the absurd but it's a logical possibility that we can find subjective meaning in life even if it's ephemeral and eventually nullified by death according to absurdist this is the only reasonable way one should live one's life to pursue meaning making projects and engage in what makes us happy again think of sisyphus rolling the boulder up the hill and enjoying it as far as its relation to active nihilism both these philosophies are very similar one could make a case that camus was really some sort of active nihilist still it seems uh more to me that active nihilism is more like the existentialism of sarcha as it pushes us to create our own meaning and essence in life that could live on while absurdism suggests that meaning making is just a possibility if we want plus with absurdism we need to understand that any meaning we create may eventually become meaningless during our lifetime and will absolutely become meaningless when we die also nietzsche's philosophy makes no mention of the absurd or how truly futile it is to understand the universe unlike camus hopefully this outlined what nihilism is what absurdism is and then the key differences between them and let me know what you think of each of these philosophies do you identify as a nihilist an absurdist or something else if you like the video please consider giving it a thumbs up and subscribing for more videos like it using the link in the description and don't forget to turn on the notification bell to receive updates when new videos like it are out so hopefully this video was informative and i'll see you again soon you

Channel: Thinking Deeply with Ben

Views: 240,798

Keywords: absurdism vs nihilism, nihilism vs absurdism, what is absurdism, what is nihilism, active vs passive nihilism, absurdism, nihilism, absurdism definition, nihilism definition, friedrich nietzsche, albert camus, absurdism philosophy, nihilism philosophy, nihilism explained, absurdism vs nihilism vs existentialism, existential nihilism explained, passive nihilism definition, active nihilism definition, what does absurdism mean, the myth of sisyphus

Id: mCfb3tgexow

Length: 7min 46sec (466 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 02 2020