The Absurd Artist thinks, “Well, if we cannot stop people from being Absurd, let us at least make them aware of that they are being absurd.” So how does an art piece accomplish this?įirst, it presents the trappings of being meaningful or insightful to get the audience invested. Which now leads into a new questions, “How can we fix that?” You are just repeating the same mistake.”įrom the repetition of the mistake, the Absurdist realizes that humans cannot help but to repeat the mistake. You should have stopped at the first bit. De Beauvoir / Sartre with Freedom Kierkegaard with Faith Nietzsche with Power, et cetera. See, the major critiques that Absurdists weigh against Existentialists is that they try to anchor a lack of essence into something that can reaffirm the existence of an essence. The Conclusion: Well those two things are opposites! That’s a pretty silly thing to do. The Humanist bit: Humans, by their nature, inherently seek meaning or value from reality Humans seek and author Essence. The Existentialist bit: Reality is without inherent meaning or value Reality lacks an Essence. Let me explain what I just wrote so that it can make sense. Then, from there, reaching a qualitative conclusion about reality and ontology.
While many want to define Absurdism as a wholly distinct, philosophical idea, I categorize it as closer to Existentialism with an additional, Humanist conclusion tagged on.