My belief on the Absurd and its contrast to Nihilism

     Before I can begin to state my belief let me briefly summarize these two ideologies starting with Nihilism. In most definitions Nihilism is the belief is nothing. Albert Camus says "A nihilist is not one who believes in nothing, but one who does not believe in what exists."* I partially agree with Camus on this definition of Nihilism in the sense that it is not the belief in nothing, but the belief that nothing has its own meaning. Camus says that it is the absence in believing what exists, but I believe it is the belief that nothing has meaning. In my own words Nihilism is the absence of believing in the meaning of life. 

    But how does Nihilism contrast from the Absurd? The Absurd is that there are two options in life. My favorite definition of the Absurd is from Camus "The absurd is sin without a god."** I believe this relates with absurdism because the absurd brings us to the idea that nothing has meaning but that we should still live our lives how we want to. But in doing so does that mean we don't have to follow rules? Not exactly. 

    The absurd stops us from doing stupid things. Lets make a scenario where there is no god. If there is no god there is nothing after this life. Does that make murder okay? It doesn't because the human race has decided that murder is unethical. But why is murder unethical? The earliest reasoning we have to murder being wrong is from the 10 commandments. So if there is no god than there are no 10 commandments. This is where the Absurd comes in. It makes sure that we as humans do not break moral code. The Absurd sets a standard of what is wrong and what is right based off human nature, but that it also does not matter at all.

    I consider myself an Absurdist because I believe that life does not have meaning until we give it meaning. For example fire did not have meaning until we learned how to use it. Climbing had no meaning to me until I started doing it 4 times a week consistently for 3 years.

    

B. Smith

    

*Albert Camus (2012). “The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt”, p.69, Vintage
**Camus, Albert, and Justin O’Brien. The Myth of Sisyphus. Vintage International : Vintage Books, a Division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2018.

 

   

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