Absurdism is a branch of philosophical thought that is born out of the seeming conflict between the human mind and the outside world. Man seeks security and stability in his life, a purpose or meaning behind his existence, a target or goal to achieve etc. But however much he tries, nature denies him all these invariably and compulsively making the whole look absurd and devoid of any meaning whatsoever. Before he could know what is what, he is gone what with his life span being very limited and also uncertain. He keeps on wondering what is the purpose and meaning behind this life. He puts this question to the Sun and the Moon, to the stars and the skies, to the winds and the rains, to the rivers and the mountains. But his query is met with a thundering silence and he is plainly baffled.
The idea of the absurd is a common theme in many existentialist works, particularly in the writings of Albert Camus, the French Philosopher. Absurdity is the notion of contrast between two things. As Camus explains it in The Myth of Sisyphus:
-- "The absurd is born out of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world". --
This view, which is shared by Sartre, another French Philosopher, is that humanity must live in a world that is and will forever be hostile or indifferent towards them. The universe will never truly care for humanity the way we seem to want it to. The atheist view of this statement is that people create stories, or gods, which in their minds transcend reality to fill this void and attempt to satisfy their need.
In philosophy, "The Absurd" refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek inherent meaning in life and the human inability to find any. In this context absurd does not mean "logically impossible," but rather "humanly impossible. The universe and the human mind do not each separately cause the Absurd, but rather, the Absurd arises by the contradictory nature of the two existing simultaneously.
Man finds throughout his life that there are always potential threats and hazards to his existence and nature is basically very hostile towards him. He runs after some precarious pleasures in life, but is hardly able to find any lasting pleasure. The thread of disappointment and misery runs all through his life making him wonder whether life is worth all the pain he needs to compulsorily endure. He is flummoxed and deeply perplexed by the following questions which haunt him throughout his life and which do not have any convincing answers:-
1. Does it make any difference to the world when millions of lives of different species are born and dying every moment on this earth?
2. What difference does it make to the world in general, if an individual lives for one year or ten years or hundred in this world and vanishes without a trace?
3. What difference does it make to nature if an average planet like earth orbiting an average star like the sun is teeming with life or not while there are trillions of similar planets orbitting with no sign of life at all?
4. After thousands of years from now, humanity will get wiped out from earth. What difference does it make to nature whether humanity had evolved, survived for some time and vanished altogether or not?
As these questions have no credible answers at all, man is appalled by the colossal absurdity of life. On a closer scutiny and study of the origin, nature and structure of life, one canot help coming to an unassailable conclusion that life cannot be anything but absurd.
Absurdism, therefore, is a philosophical school of thought stating that the efforts of humanity to find inherent meaning will ultimately fail (and hence are absurd), because no such meaning exists, at least in relation to the individual.
Man by and large sets for himself certain targets and goals to be achieved. But time is not on his side. Decay and death stall his efforts and cripple his mission. Before long he goes into oblivion, thereby ending his tale of tragedy with no footnotes. However, this scenario is not always true. Some may feel quite satisfied with life, with their achievements and they may seem to think that they have left their footprints in the sands of time. But it is all pure chance. It is pure chance that an individual arrives on the scene as his self and it is again pure chance if he is able to achieve what he sets out for and gets satisfied with his feats. Ultimately when the self dies, everything vanishes along with the self.
The fact of the entire matter is that the universe and everything that it contains is a mental phenomenon of the self and has no existential value independent of the mind.. The conclusion and subsequently the thought that anything is physical and real is basically a mental process only. Therefore the existence of any entity, whether it is time, matter, energy, destiny or just a thought is purely an attribute or characteristic of the mind.
Basically our mind deludes us into thinking that the self is a product of the world and the world in any case is like a permanent entity that shall definitely outlive the self. It is precisely this delusion that causes the conflict between human interest and the outside world. The human mind is constantly haunted by the fear that when death arrives, he vanishes leaving his loved ones and all his possessions behind in a hostile world. In reality however, the outside world and the human mind are one and the same. The most enigmatic truth is that when the person dies and his mind vanishes, he takes his world also along with him into oblivion. But hardly anyone believes this truth. The general argument against this truth is that, though we see lots of people dying all the time, the world continues to move on. Every one practically believes that despite the incessantly occurring deaths of people day in and day out, nature uncaringly marches on with no let up in the earth rotating around its axis and orbiting around the ever-blazing sun. But the fact remains that this world is linked only with your mind and not with the minds of the dead people. Thereby it gets well established that this world exists only as long as your mind exists. And the moment your mind ends its existence, the world also ends its sojourn.
Once we realize the oneness of the mind with the outside world, the seemingly inherent conflict between the self and the world vanishes like a dewdrop in the sun. It follows naturally that there is no point in man trying to seek the purpose or meaning behind his life from any outside entity. He has to put that query to his own mind, which alone can furnish the required answer depending on his attitude. The world is born along with your mind and it vanishes along with the mind. The questions like what existed before the mind came on to the scene or what can exist after the mind ceases to exist are illogical and irrelevant questions that can not arise in the absence of the mind in view of the fact that questions need to be put to the mind and also answered by the mind only. There is absolutely nothing that is permanent here. Ultimately the idea that anything can be permanent is an immature concept of an ignorant mind.
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