Introduction to Absurdism

Absurdism is a philosophy that states that the efforts of humanity to find meaning in the universe ultimately fail (and thus is absurd), because no such meaning exists, at least in relation to the individual. The word "absurd" in this context does not mean "logically impossible," but rather "humanly impossible." Absurdism as a whole is related to existentialism and nihilism and has its roots in the 19th century Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard. Absurdism as a belief system was born of the existentialist movement, when the French Algerian philosopher and writer Albert Camus broke from that philosophical line of thought and published his manuscript The Myth of Sisyphus. “The absurd is born out of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world” - Albert Camus. In absurdist philosophy, the Absurd arises out of the fundamental disharmony between man's search for meaning and the apparent meaninglessness of the universe. As beings looking for meaning in a meaningless world, humans have three ways of resolving the dilemma. Kierkegaard and Camus describe the solutions in their works, The Sickness Unto Death (1849) and The Myth of Sisyphus (1942). These three choices are one, suicide or escaping existence. The first solution to the dilemma is simply to end one's life. Two is accepting a type of religious belief in a transcendent world. Such a belief would provide the existence of a realm that is beyond the Absurd, and, as such, has meaning. Finally three is the acceptance of the absurd: The absurdist solution is to accept and even embrace the absurdity of life and to continue living in spite of it. My belief in the absurd is the third solution in that I accept the absurdity of life yet at the same time I am optimistic even in a world where there is no meaning, no objective standard by which to measure ones actions as right and wrong, no way in obtaining objective truth, no reassurance what so ever, hence my name as “The Happy Absurdist”. By the way basically all of this information is from wikipedia so dont post a comment telling me this.