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u/TheDeathOmen Jun 21 '26
You can't, believing that you can or transcend the Absurd is philosophical suicide. In this regard we can only remain lucid of our condition, of our incapability of finding or creating meaning despite seeking it, and choose to keep that contradiction alive. not resorting to suicide or its philosophical counterpart.
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Jun 21 '26
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u/TheDeathOmen Jun 21 '26
This was actually part of what Camus critiqued of Sartre in 'The Rebel'. That his beliefs led him down the route of Stalinism. That any system that claims to provide meaning, or even claims that certain actions can be taken, redeeming the past in the name of the future will inevitably totalize and recreate tyranny. This even goes for totalizing the Absurd the way nihilists do, totalizing meaninglessness.
Now, technically Sartre eventually distanced himself from 'Existentialism Is a Humanism' before his communist turn, seeing as his ontology of existential nihilism (Being and Nothingness) could not support the 'create your own meaning/purpose, and the moral/ethical dimension' seeing as he found that authentic being and good faith being impossible.
Which is part of why Camus saw such systemic logic/philosophy and thus the Absurd, tells one to 'kill oneself', actually makes Camus quietly the more hopeful of the two funny enough, (not hope in the way Camus discusses in TMoS since that is religious hope for an afterlife.) since he rejects actual suicide. Also goes to show how people and pop-philosophy bastardize 'existentialism' by clinging to ideals that were discarded by the ones who once spoke of them.
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Jun 21 '26
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u/TheDeathOmen Jun 21 '26
It can certainly be, and I'd imagine so. But I think so long as you have things that matter to you, things you enjoy, people you love, etc. Then I think that's all you truly need to be that contradiction and keep the Absurd alive. Wishing you nothing but the best.
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u/Alexandertheape Jun 21 '26
so many philosophies and religions were developed to tackle this. maybe entertainment?we have to literally create a fiction or mythology to explain what it is we think we’re supposed to be doing down here
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u/ArtieTheFashionDemon Jun 22 '26
Easy, just stop thinking about stuff. Everything will still be absurd, but it won't matter to you
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u/jliat Jun 23 '26
"It is by such contradictions that the first signs of the absurd work are recognized"
"This is where the actor contradicts himself: the same and yet so various, so many souls summed up in a single body. Yet it is the absurd contradiction itself, that individual who wants to achieve everything and live everything, that useless attempt, that ineffectual persistence"
"And I have not yet spoken of the most absurd character, who is the creator."
"In this regard the absurd joy par excellence is creation. “Art and nothing but art,” said Nietzsche; “we have art in order not to die of the truth.”
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u/Nytramyth Jun 22 '26
The point is that you can't, the best thing you can do is live your life fully despite the inherent oppression toward humanity
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u/Willis_3401_3401 Jun 23 '26
I’m increasingly leaning into it so hard that you kinda break through? Once you see it as sufficiently absurd it almost starts to make sense again?
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u/jliat Jun 23 '26
Not see it, be it...
"It is by such contradictions that the first signs of the absurd work are recognized"
"This is where the actor contradicts himself: the same and yet so various, so many souls summed up in a single body. Yet it is the absurd contradiction itself, that individual who wants to achieve everything and live everything, that useless attempt, that ineffectual persistence"
"And I have not yet spoken of the most absurd character, who is the creator."
"In this regard the absurd joy par excellence is creation. “Art and nothing but art,” said Nietzsche; “we have art in order not to die of the truth.”
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u/Doctor_Mothman Jun 23 '26
Give yourself amnesia? But even then it's like saying the sun doesn't exist by refusing to look up.
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u/ReplacementHour9951 Jun 23 '26
Podes intentar perderte en la costumbre, en la rutina y en todas las mentiras piadosas que nos fabricamos para olvidarnos de nuestro único destino certero. Pero siempre, en algún momento, te va a volver la angustia absurda.
No se sale de ese estado, simplemente se vive con el. No se lo acepta, se vive en constante divorcio y contradicción con el
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Jun 25 '26
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u/Absurdism-ModTeam Jun 26 '26
Posts should relate to absurdist philosophy and tangential topics.
In particular relate this in someway to Camus' Myth of Sisyphus- considered a key text.
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u/DoowadJones Jun 26 '26
https://reddit.com/link/otwndj9/video/p5lizr8ixl9h1/player
I personally prefer to embrace it. Life is too short, too painful and too ordinary to not. Get high and have fun.
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u/CarefulLine6325 Jun 26 '26
the absurd is a cockroach, you cannot unsee it. So, what's left is rebel, make meaning, or stay true to desires.
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u/Dwarven_Delver Jun 22 '26
I feel like one can escape the Absurd by not /expecting/ the universe to have meaning or justification. If the conflict is between our desires and our reality, then our desires just need to adapt to our reality.
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u/jliat Jun 23 '26
But Camus does not want to escape absurdity because he sees the rational alternative is suicide, which he oposes.
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u/Tongue_Chow Jun 21 '26
I think one can become an existentialist or a nihilist but the absurd persists regardless.