Since I was young I have been saying “it’s a crazy world” in that the unexpected, the irrational, the unknown, always seems find a way of manifesting itself when we least expect it. A couple years ago I re(discovered) the song “wild world” by Cat Steven’s, which deeply resonated with me, and expressed a similar sentiment to that phrase which I had repeated over the course of my life. It seems like in times when reality appears to contradict itself, when what I never thought to be true, suddenly appears to actually be true, in times of revelation, and understanding, in rational conceptualization, insight of the nature of the world, in discoveries such as determinism, the lack of a soul, the lack of inherit meaning in the world, with insight into the vastness of the universe, and the minuteness of finite human life, of the unimportance within us, yet the ability to change so much; I state that it’s a crazy world, expressing my amazement with the irrational, seemingly contradictory, aspects of the true nature of things. I realized just now this was an intimation of the philosophical term, the absurd, and the feeling, and thought, that accompanied such circumstances that merit the utterance or thought of, “it’s a crazy world”, is what Camus called the feeling of the absurd.

The Absurd is a description of the situation that arises between a human and the universe, it requires both, it is, in its essence, reality, yet it is in recognizing realities strange dualistic nature, its absurd qualities, the conflict between characteristics of the world, and characteristics which humans possess, that constitutes “the absurd”. For example, the universe is meaningless, purposeless, just a determinate web of cause and effect, with no intrinsic objective morality, nor any meaning or purpose. Yet humans run around their whole lives searching for meaning, or believing in a meaning which doesn’t exist outside of their belief in it. This is the absurd. The search for meaning where it doesn’t exist is absurd. It is contradictory, irrational, yet, it really exists, and we all are engulfed in it. If you were to learn of a man who is spending his entire life counting the grains on the beach, and he is content doing so and finds profound beauty in the act, and feels it is meaningful, your response would be that it is absurd. This is, in effect, what all of us do every day. We feel as if our actions first are produced by us (freewill), second as if they are meaningful and matter, yet, in the grand scheme of things, both these conceptions are starkly not true. Even when someone has this insight, they continue doing the same things, living in the same manner, due to the habitual and various other factors involved. This is truly the absurd.

When faced with the absurd, philosophers such as Camus and Kierkegaard both devised strategies, to how one should deal with the absurd, once it is realized, and contemplated. One is suicide, an attempt to negate the absurd reality, to end what doesn’t matter anyway. To escape the pointless suffering of human existence. Of course, this solution isn’t any way in which to live, it’s clearly a way only to die, yet it is a way to react to the realization, but from the perspective of the universe, it merely is another effect, with a cause. It is neither good or bad, just an event. Camus points out it actually makes the whole situation more absurd.

The second solution purported is the general existentialist point of view, which Kierkegaard urged us towards, to create your own meaning, or to act on faith in following an arbitrarily man made meaning, believe in an idea, a moral, a transcendental reality, supernatural phenomena, god, religion, etc. Create your own morality, philosophical structure, in something which is outside, above, or more encompassing than the absurd, thus creating meaning, and a path to follow. Once you have found or created the meaning, you no longer believe the universe is meaningless, you have past that, you have taken a leap of faith, a leap beyond the originally noted fact of the unimportance of our actions from the universal standpoint. This is what Camus calls philosophical suicide, as opposed to the first option, physical suicide. In essence, by supposing something that transcends the absurd you are removing your awareness of the absurd, as if what is rational and true to this reality isn’t important if there is a higher reality. This view replaces a recognition of the absurd, with the belief that what one has created (the meaning) is the true reality, which it can be, for you, subjectively, but never objectively, and that is the aspect which most existentialists fail to realize. This option is only valid if you wish to sacrifice reason, logic, and a valid, untheoretical, un faith based, understanding of reality, for something which makes you feel better, solving existential dread, solving the problem of the finitude of human life, solving death, solving the search for meaning we all experience. It is the easy way out.  It is the belief in God at the sacrifice of reason. It is, in a way, a rational leap of faith, in that the leaping will make you better, whether the landing place is real or imaginary, your life will be happier, and the suffering of the realization of the absurd is suppressed by the higher ideal.

The third solution is Camus’ choice, the acceptance of the absurd, yet the continued searching for truth and meaning within its structure. It is the rational understanding of the absurdity of existence, coupled with the human ability and perseverance to discover meaning and truth, to continue on without laying yourself sacrifice to what you “wish to be true”, accepting what you know to be true, and moving onward.  People say this means rejecting morality, but it is possible to strive onwards while upholding a temporary morality which best fits reality as to your current understanding dictates, without believing it to be infallible, permanent, or all pervading.

I think there is room for expansion in this final solution, in that we can discovery that there is a meaningful, best way to live, science can help show us this, the road that leads to the best human life, this is what objective moralist regard as the movement away from the worst possible misery for everyone, i.e. moral realism. (Basic Moral Realism) Any step away from that would be morally correct, if we accept the axiom that the worst suffering for everyone is itself something that is true in the context of morality. From the absurd perspective, this axiom is valid only within the individuals, human conception of morality, which itself doesn’t hold ground on a universal scale. Since we’re recognizing reality, and the absurdity of it, the coupling of these ideas necessarily entails the conceptual understanding, and for success, acceptance, of the fact the universe is purposeless through and through. But, since we are human, and are alive, we must recognize morality, since we fall under its sway in our actual experience, yet we cannot escape the broader domain of the universes “point of view”. So it is possible to recognize absurdity, the absence of morality, and meaning in the universe from a perspective that is anything but life itself.

Since we are human, we are life, not philosophical abstraction, we must operate under the purview of some morality whether known or unknown. Something within us forms a conscience whether we like it or not, this is actually, part of the absurd itself. Our conscience dictates our conceptions of right and wrong and is alterable due to influence. Even if we conceptually fall into the sway of a philosophical doctrine such as nihilism, within the absurd framework, this holds only as a conceptual framework. It is a word game that never represents a human life, as one can think there is no right and wrong, good and bad, you can’t escape determinism, and each moment will prove to any observer what you (as a living organism) believes to be right or wrong, based on your action. There is an inbuilt biological value system within any life system, whether known or unknown to the organism, we know this because we choose to focus and pursue certain things, and not others. We contain, as part of our being, a perceptual filtration system, which is strained through the developed (both genetically and learned) value system, which, produces our conscious experience “Universal Existentialism“. We pay attention to certain things, spend time with certain people, participate in certain activities. This is a product of evolution, culture, genetics, environment, an amalgam of all life experiences leading up to the present moment, including consciousness itself. The conscious awareness of suicidal tendencies is somewhat of an issue philosophically in how it fits into this picture, but it does have a rational deterministic path towards its fruition, no matter how irrational and contradictory to inert value systems it appears to be. This is obviously quite absurd.

All things considered, where life is, morality is always there, as morality contains human action, and humans always act, every moment, where humans are acting, there is an experience, this experience can be better or worse, subjectively. If there can be better or worse subjective experiences, better or worse methods of navigating life to produce an optimal mode of Being to the individual, than there necessarily are better or worse methods towards that aim. Within this bracketing of human life, in this way, we can determine meaningful solutions. Outside of the bracket, these meaningful actions, pursuits, and their accomplishment or not, merely are null in meaning. This is the absurd contradiction we must face and work within. In this way we all have a philosophy, including a morality, including a world view, including beliefs, this is all real, and unavoidable in any life, while outside of subjective experience, from an objective point of view, there is no meaning or purpose to this process, it merely is. I think recognizing the absurd necessarily requires a divorce from this type of subjective purpose perspective and the acceptance of the consequences of an objective answer to purpose, but it is absurd to think it’s possible for a conscious entity to lose that subjective perspective entirely. It truly is absurd that it exists at all. The solution, from my perspective, which, obviously isn’t universal, is in rebelling against the contradiction we find ourselves in, and in pursuing meaning in our bracketed universe regardless of the overarching evaluation. For a critique of Camus’ perspective see – “Critique of Absurdism“.

Whether the universe cares or not, (which it doesn’t!), we care, our Being is defined by the care in which we use to navigate our experience. We like positive states of consciousness, produced by what we value, or find meaningful, this doesn’t mean it actually has meaning, or that we’re fooling ourselves, but in pursuing these things, with a recognition of the absurd, we are rebelling against nature, rebelling against reality and choosing our own way, despite it, yet, within it. This is the option I believe we ought to choose, because any other pathway, would either result in a terrible experience, psychological suffering, or in some form of deception, rather its deceiving ourselves into thinking something is true that isn’t, existentialism, or in believing that nothing, not even from our own perspective, has any meaningful significance, nihilism (it does, to us). While this method appears as the only option left for the truth valuing and life affirming individual, it still must be recognized in its ultimate fallibility, it is the best option which currently makes sense; my morality, understanding, intelligence, reason, beliefs, knowledge, wisdom, are all subject to change, it is my mission, my arbitrary meaning, in a meaningless universe, to improve them, because, I will not sacrifice the greatest aspects of which make me human; reason, mindfulness, the present moment, under another human’s supernatural ideas. I won’t sacrifice the highest form of life currently known, human life, the human brain, in believing in an imaginary reality outside or after the one I’m embedded in. I won’t sacrifice my search for truth for an untruth and a pleasant life, I’ll push the capabilities of this brain to develop in a way which I deem to be good, which is itself arbitrary, and knowingly so, but it is personally the only road I see left after the others have burned away. It is the only path standing, the path to truth, wisdom, knowledge, understanding, virtue, within a meaningless universe. The whole endeavor of my life may be meaningless, but it means something to me, and it means something to my family and those who know me. For them, for all humans, we make this endeavor, to aim for the stars while staying grounded.