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Absurdism

bedizzy
Initiate

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Posted 06/16/08 - 11:43 AM:	#21
Life is intrinsically meaningful and requires no outside qualifier. As long as an existent being is living, it has meaning in and of itself. The purpose of a hammer is to hit nails The purpose of wings are to fly The purpose of life is to live

Vigotski
The catcher in the rye

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Posted 07/04/09 - 09:24 AM:	#22
bedizzy wrote: Life is intrinsically meaningful and requires no outside qualifier. As long as an existent being is living, it has meaning in and of itself. The purpose of a hammer is to hit nails The purpose of wings are to fly The purpose of life is to live Yes!

Cafe Rob
coffee aficionado

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Posted 07/04/09 - 04:12 PM:	#23
The ‘absurd’, a term coined by Albert Camus, refers to the attempt by man to find meaning where none exists. A person can create specific meaning for his own individual life but this does not change the fact that life, a sensory rather than rational experience, has no deeper purpose other than existence. Death is the only certainty and the world is indifferent to man who is of no importance once he no longer exists. A book written by Camus in 1941 The Stranger provides a few clues to Camus's thoughts. The most fascinating part is Meursault’s anguished contemplation of his impending execution after he is sentenced to death. A violent confrontation with the prison chaplain is a breakthrough for Meursault and this allows him to submit to the ‘gentle indifference of the world’. The extent to which Camus approves of Meursault and his journey towards enlightenment is something I wondered about. Society presents justice ideally as being blind to the emotional and psychological complications of human nature, focusing only on the truth and the facts but in this case the roles are reversed: Meursault is objective and detached about his crime but the justice system insists on trying to understand his motivation and condemns him harshly (relative to the sentence that might otherwise have been expected) when this cannot be explained within the confines of society’s expectations. Meursault becomes more sympathetic as the novel progresses and this is also reflected in the changing prose style which becomes richer, more complex. Camus seems to approve of Meursault’s evolution from a natural, unthinking indifference to a more considered one. Is Camus saying that we should become indifferent to the world just as it is indifferent to us? Or is he saying that we should take as much enjoyment as we can from the sensory pleasures of life but in the clear knowledge that none of this means anything and ceases to have relevance once the moment is past?

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