What is Absurd anyway?

The question may arise in the course of this blog - what exactly do I mean when I refer to the Absurd? Well, allow me to elucidate.

The Absurd is, by its very nature, a personal condition. In classical philosophy, the Absurd often refers to the thin, filmy division between the logical/rational world, the emotional world and the search for meaning in a world without any intrinsic purpose. In the works of Camus, amongst others, our world is a place containing no coherent reason for existence; one which hinges upon our observations and the constructed realities of those around us (as witnessed by Camus' Stranger, who acts according to his own desires, mostly due to his disconnect from other people; or the heroic characters of the Plague who choose to live and thrive in the face of overwhelming odds).

Philosophic absurdity stems from Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard - also recognized as the father of atheistic and theistic existentialism - and represents his attempt to understand the nature of this seemingly meaningless universe. It was his positing that, in the face of such bewildering situations human beings could turn to several different outlooks, the primary ones being: either accept that meaningless and seek to create meaning for ourselves, or we could choose to make a "leap of faith" (Kierkegaard is recognized as the first to coin this concept).

But the polemics of philosophy aside, what does the absurd mean to us? To me? Well, it represents a conscious understanding that our world is boundless and shapeless beyond our own understanding of it. It suggest that we construct our comprehensive view of our world and our life from our observations, as well as from the constructs others have built - the infrastructure of culture so to speak.

This notion of a self-made world, can help us to understand why one person grows up to become a dentist, and the other a serial arsonist. Now of course Absurdist ideas don't account for the influence of heredity, and this may be a modern chip in its armor, but that's a topic for an entirely different essay. That aside, Absurdism remains an intriguing worldview, one which sets aside the notion of a contrived, circumscribed universe and allows our observations to mold the shape of the universe. Our universe is not necessarily static and rigid, like the one prescribed by culture or religion.

But most of all, it reminds me to seek out other people and other cultures; to broaden my ideological and emotional contact with my world. For if we never explore beyond ourselves, we risk becoming one-dimensional entities in our self-defined universes.