Absurdism - Relationship With Existentialism and Nihilism

Relationship With Existentialism and Nihilism

Basic relationships between existentialism, absurdism and nihilism
Atheistic existentialism Monotheistic existentialism Absurdism Nihilism
1. There is such a thing as meaning or value: Yes. Yes. Maybe. No.
2. There is inherent meaning in the universe: No. Maybe, but the individual must have faith in God to believe that, yes, there is. Maybe, but humans can never know it. No.
3. The pursuit of meaning may have meaning in itself: No, meaning can only be individually constructed, not pursued. Yes. Yes (but not for certain). No.
4. The individual's construction of any type of meaning is possible: Yes, thus the goal of existentialism. Yes, thus the goal of existentialism, though this meaning must incorporate God. Yes, though it must be personal and face the Absurd; moreover, there is no way to verify whether one's constructed meaning conforms to any inherent meaning. No, because there is no meaning to create.
5. There is resolution to the individual's desire to seek meaning: Yes, the creation of one's own meaning. Yes, the creation of one's own meaning involving God. Maybe the creation of one's own meaning, but not with regard to the inherent meaning of the universe (if one exists). No.

Read more about this topic:  Absurdism

Famous quotes containing the words relationship with, relationship and/or nihilism:

    “Every man is in a state of conflict, owing to his attempt to reconcile himself and his relationship with life to his conception of harmony. This conflict makes his soul a battlefield, where the forces that wish this reconciliation fight those that do not and reject the alternative solutions they offer. Works of art are attempts to fight out this conflict in the imaginative world.”
    —Rebecca West (1892–1983)

    “Sometimes in our relationship to another human being the proper balance of friendship is restored when we put a few grains of impropriety onto our own side of the scale.”
    —Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

    “Nihilism: any aim is lacking, any answer to the question “why” is lacking. What does nihilism mean?—that the supreme values devaluate themselves.”
    —Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)