Difference Between Nihilism and Absurdism

571 views

How are this 2 different?

In: Other

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Ok so my philosophy classes were some years ago, but I seem to remember nihilism being meaningless, and in absurdism meaning is beyond reckoning.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Absurdism is part of nihilism. Nihilism is accepting existence is meaningless, and absurdism is accepting this fact, and also accepting that humans always look for a meaning of their life (without finding one because it doesn’t exist) , which are contradictory and absurd.
For example It’s in opposition with existentialism that also accepts the meaninglessness of life but say that individuals are able to give a meaning to their own life.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Nihilism: nothing has intrinsic meaning or value; believing in anything is pointless.

Absurdism: see nihilism, but add the existence of Belgium.

Anonymous 0 Comments

They run along the same vein and I like to think about it this way: Nihilism is a stance and Absurdism is more a description.

Nihilism is the recognition of things (philosophically speaking, life) being meaningless. Absurdism describes our state of tension in realizing things are meaningless and still struggling to apply meaningfulness.

The two are very similar. I am an absurdist and the difference for me is the decision as to how one confronts the ‘absurd’: I choose to embrace the idea of meaninglessness. This is something Camus (credited with popularizing Absurdism) suggests as a solution. Nihilism itself doesn’t provide a solution, per se.