I want to start with two very short
stories first story a salesman wakes up
one morning and finds himself unable to
go to work because for some reason has
been transformed into a huge insect as
time goes by the salesman’s getting
somehow used to has changed buddy where
as to his family he’s just a big
nuisance an animal that’s incapable to
support them financially in the end the
salesman the insect that is dies and his
parents and sister go for a little
family vacation
second story two men have been waiting
for 50 years on a country road for
someone or something called
Goro each night a boy delivers the
message that girl won’t come today but
will surely arrive tomorrow but that
never happens
good old doesn’t arrive and the two men
wait ever after these are just two
legendary examples of the literary
absurd the first one sums up the plot of
a novella by the park rider Franz Kafka
called metamorphosis different long it
was written in 1912 the second one is
the summary of Waiting for Godot
a theatre play by the Irish writer
Samuel Beckett which was first staged in
1953 what do these two stories have in
common they are not making any sense
they are weird crazy ridiculous absurd
absurd stems from the Latin word
absurdum literary meaning out of Harmony
the absurd so the dictionary tells us
stands for the irrational the logical
the unintelligible absolutism is the
modern art form that stands for a
certain avant-garde tradition observance
narratives are inspired by the
observance that reality
behave in a logical way many of these
works were written shortly before or
after World War two
they carried message that absurdity is a
central part of human existence that
human condition is characterized by the
nonsensical the meaningless the feeling
of meaninglessness is of course by no
means restricted to writers or artists
or philosophers I don’t know about you
but most people feel from time to time
that life is absurd some have that
feeling all the time not because they
walk as huge insects through life but
because they experience life as a rather
capricious diva that just doesn’t care
that much about their ambitions or
efforts what is life life is a full-time
job one we all take very seriously we’re
making plans we’re determined to
struggle very hard to make our dreams
come true and yet we can’t escape
skepticism we can’t escape doubt
sometimes we doubt that our efforts are
really worthwhile we doubt that we’ll
reach our goals we know that death can
strike anytime right now at the moment
I’ve decided to clean up my life and
become a better person I could get
diagnosed with cancer or any other
irrational obstacle could get my way why
is that a problem must that be a problem
well I don’t think so on the contrary I
believe that without the absurd there is
no good life no happy life even not for
you not for me
why do I think so isn’t it absurd to
think so yet absurd is also a social
get it with the contradictory with a
paradoxical that’s because it refers to
the conflict between our demands for
meaning and the world that all too often
doesn’t satisfy those demands for
example Peter Peter spends all his money
for his fiancee he buys her a house they
move in together and next day she leaves
him for a woman or take Kate Kate
desperately tries to get pregnant
whereas her sister Kim doesn’t want to
have children at all
Kate tries in vitro fertilization and
doesn’t succeed whereas Kim all of a
sudden finds herself pregnant with
triplets really is that a fact
or did I just make up another story as
you know recently fact and truth have
become highly controversial issues
lately we’ve incorporated a new category
into the existing domain of reality the
so called eternity facts it’s possible
that those who believe in the Church of
facts were educated to think that
whatever facts there may be they all
socially constructed anyway
ever since constructivism has spread
from the university to politics a new
facet of the absurd has come to the
foreground and this is the sense that
true and false are just two sides of the
same coin that facts are just a matter
of perspective but when for each facts
there’s an alternate effect because each
can be somehow defended on its own
grounds because there’s no common
reality by which to measure what’s right
what’s wrong what’s true and what’s fake
then you end up
in relativism then you have to concede
there are facts relatively true but what
I say is true
must feel true for you for instance you
say that we’re living in a post fact
world I say that we’re living among
people who prefer following their post
rational sentiments rather than relying
on objective scientific criteria you
have your truth and I have mine and that
sounds quite out of harmony absurd at
least to me who still believes in
science so to sum up in art as well as
in daily life the absurd is associated
with a global sense of nonsense still I
believe that without the absurd there’s
no good no happy life not for any of us
I tell you why I’m a philosopher I earn
my living by giving talks like that and
writing books for a large audience
consider but outside the Academy no one
really knows what philosophy is no one
really knows what a philosopher is as a
blonde woman it can actually be quite
dangerous to go to a party and present
yourself as a philosopher people might
easily get confused they might have
expected something completely different
they might think that you’re not really
real or just another alternative fact or
worse some time ago when I went to the
gym there was a new trainer and by
chance she found out about my profession
and she was really shocked she just
stood there staring at me and she went a
philosopher oh my god but I thought the
Philosopher’s were all dead
as philosopher you happen upon a lot of
absurd situations like that the
situation is absurd when it includes the
drastic difference between what you’re
expecting or striving for and what is
really the case
you wouldn’t expect it to be presumed
dead you wouldn’t expect it to wake up
as an insect or stop being the person
you thought you were but what have you
did the small doubt remains I don’t
think that doubt is bad I don’t think
that bumping into nonsense over and over
must necessarily be a bad thing on the
contrary I believe that every time we
feel that a situation is absurd we’re
reminded of our freedom to change our
attitude towards it and that’s why I
don’t quite agree to the arguments of
the so-called existentialist philosopher
of post-war France especially jean-paul
Satre and I Becca moon – haters of the
absurd for them life is just inherently
meaningless what happens happens
life and the world just doesn’t care
about us about whether we’re good or bad
persons therefore Sattler death is just
the file absurdity no more no less
absurd than life itself commute on the
other hand he puts it bluntly he says
that in the face of an absurd world with
just two options either we commit
suicide or we become rebels Commun
recommends that we wrote for defiance
against the world that’s just not ready
to meet our expectations he does so
because he thinks that absurdity is a
problem the disaster Oh
now let’s all take a deep breath and
relax a little better I got good news
for you the absurd as such doesn’t exist
or rather it exists only for rational
animals like us who just can’t stop
searching for meaning a hamsters life
isn’t absurd
a hamster doesn’t worry about his rent a
hamster is not free to take a step back
and see itself from a distance but we
are we’re free
we’re able to transcend ourselves in our
situation in thought and that’s a
wonderful thing because if we do we can
see clearly that our world is not the
realm of pure logic
ours is a universe of contingency and
contingent means whatever is
such-and-such could as well be otherwise
in a contingent world there’s no just
cause and effect there’s always the
possibility of a senseless obstacle
getting in our way and it is this
possibility that creates our sense of
the absurd but is what we call
irrational logic are crazy not always
the beginning of a big icky
adventure just for change imagine a life
that would make perfect sense everything
you’ve ever wanted would come true in
time you would find the perfect partner
and the perfect job for you your kids
would be born at precisely the right
time your boss would be empathetic and
full of integrity you’ll never fall ill
during vacation everything would turn
out exactly as planned
would you call it a good life of course
not a good life or die ammonia
the Greek philosophers call it is not
determined by necessity it is determined
by action it requires your active
contribution in a contingent world if
you want a happy life you shouldn’t do
everything as planned
you should go out of your way and use
your heart and your brain and embrace
absurdity as well as the many doubts
that go along with it and by the way
embracing the absurd doesn’t just mean
expecting the unexpected
it means it’s expecting everything and
nothing at the same time your sense of
the absurd could well be the most human
thing about you it could well be the
proof that you’re not an insect and
insects unable to ponder on alternative
facts but who knows you never know you
wake up as a bug maybe even tomorrow
morning so next time you get stuck in a
really absurd situation don’t pity
yourself the absurd reminds you that
life is never what you plant it should
be life is an adventure and the
absurdity is the starting point for a
good life thank you very much
you
stories first story a salesman wakes up
one morning and finds himself unable to
go to work because for some reason has
been transformed into a huge insect as
time goes by the salesman’s getting
somehow used to has changed buddy where
as to his family he’s just a big
nuisance an animal that’s incapable to
support them financially in the end the
salesman the insect that is dies and his
parents and sister go for a little
family vacation
second story two men have been waiting
for 50 years on a country road for
someone or something called
Goro each night a boy delivers the
message that girl won’t come today but
will surely arrive tomorrow but that
never happens
good old doesn’t arrive and the two men
wait ever after these are just two
legendary examples of the literary
absurd the first one sums up the plot of
a novella by the park rider Franz Kafka
called metamorphosis different long it
was written in 1912 the second one is
the summary of Waiting for Godot
a theatre play by the Irish writer
Samuel Beckett which was first staged in
1953 what do these two stories have in
common they are not making any sense
they are weird crazy ridiculous absurd
absurd stems from the Latin word
absurdum literary meaning out of Harmony
the absurd so the dictionary tells us
stands for the irrational the logical
the unintelligible absolutism is the
modern art form that stands for a
certain avant-garde tradition observance
narratives are inspired by the
observance that reality
behave in a logical way many of these
works were written shortly before or
after World War two
they carried message that absurdity is a
central part of human existence that
human condition is characterized by the
nonsensical the meaningless the feeling
of meaninglessness is of course by no
means restricted to writers or artists
or philosophers I don’t know about you
but most people feel from time to time
that life is absurd some have that
feeling all the time not because they
walk as huge insects through life but
because they experience life as a rather
capricious diva that just doesn’t care
that much about their ambitions or
efforts what is life life is a full-time
job one we all take very seriously we’re
making plans we’re determined to
struggle very hard to make our dreams
come true and yet we can’t escape
skepticism we can’t escape doubt
sometimes we doubt that our efforts are
really worthwhile we doubt that we’ll
reach our goals we know that death can
strike anytime right now at the moment
I’ve decided to clean up my life and
become a better person I could get
diagnosed with cancer or any other
irrational obstacle could get my way why
is that a problem must that be a problem
well I don’t think so on the contrary I
believe that without the absurd there is
no good life no happy life even not for
you not for me
why do I think so isn’t it absurd to
think so yet absurd is also a social
get it with the contradictory with a
paradoxical that’s because it refers to
the conflict between our demands for
meaning and the world that all too often
doesn’t satisfy those demands for
example Peter Peter spends all his money
for his fiancee he buys her a house they
move in together and next day she leaves
him for a woman or take Kate Kate
desperately tries to get pregnant
whereas her sister Kim doesn’t want to
have children at all
Kate tries in vitro fertilization and
doesn’t succeed whereas Kim all of a
sudden finds herself pregnant with
triplets really is that a fact
or did I just make up another story as
you know recently fact and truth have
become highly controversial issues
lately we’ve incorporated a new category
into the existing domain of reality the
so called eternity facts it’s possible
that those who believe in the Church of
facts were educated to think that
whatever facts there may be they all
socially constructed anyway
ever since constructivism has spread
from the university to politics a new
facet of the absurd has come to the
foreground and this is the sense that
true and false are just two sides of the
same coin that facts are just a matter
of perspective but when for each facts
there’s an alternate effect because each
can be somehow defended on its own
grounds because there’s no common
reality by which to measure what’s right
what’s wrong what’s true and what’s fake
then you end up
in relativism then you have to concede
there are facts relatively true but what
I say is true
must feel true for you for instance you
say that we’re living in a post fact
world I say that we’re living among
people who prefer following their post
rational sentiments rather than relying
on objective scientific criteria you
have your truth and I have mine and that
sounds quite out of harmony absurd at
least to me who still believes in
science so to sum up in art as well as
in daily life the absurd is associated
with a global sense of nonsense still I
believe that without the absurd there’s
no good no happy life not for any of us
I tell you why I’m a philosopher I earn
my living by giving talks like that and
writing books for a large audience
consider but outside the Academy no one
really knows what philosophy is no one
really knows what a philosopher is as a
blonde woman it can actually be quite
dangerous to go to a party and present
yourself as a philosopher people might
easily get confused they might have
expected something completely different
they might think that you’re not really
real or just another alternative fact or
worse some time ago when I went to the
gym there was a new trainer and by
chance she found out about my profession
and she was really shocked she just
stood there staring at me and she went a
philosopher oh my god but I thought the
Philosopher’s were all dead
as philosopher you happen upon a lot of
absurd situations like that the
situation is absurd when it includes the
drastic difference between what you’re
expecting or striving for and what is
really the case
you wouldn’t expect it to be presumed
dead you wouldn’t expect it to wake up
as an insect or stop being the person
you thought you were but what have you
did the small doubt remains I don’t
think that doubt is bad I don’t think
that bumping into nonsense over and over
must necessarily be a bad thing on the
contrary I believe that every time we
feel that a situation is absurd we’re
reminded of our freedom to change our
attitude towards it and that’s why I
don’t quite agree to the arguments of
the so-called existentialist philosopher
of post-war France especially jean-paul
Satre and I Becca moon – haters of the
absurd for them life is just inherently
meaningless what happens happens
life and the world just doesn’t care
about us about whether we’re good or bad
persons therefore Sattler death is just
the file absurdity no more no less
absurd than life itself commute on the
other hand he puts it bluntly he says
that in the face of an absurd world with
just two options either we commit
suicide or we become rebels Commun
recommends that we wrote for defiance
against the world that’s just not ready
to meet our expectations he does so
because he thinks that absurdity is a
problem the disaster Oh
now let’s all take a deep breath and
relax a little better I got good news
for you the absurd as such doesn’t exist
or rather it exists only for rational
animals like us who just can’t stop
searching for meaning a hamsters life
isn’t absurd
a hamster doesn’t worry about his rent a
hamster is not free to take a step back
and see itself from a distance but we
are we’re free
we’re able to transcend ourselves in our
situation in thought and that’s a
wonderful thing because if we do we can
see clearly that our world is not the
realm of pure logic
ours is a universe of contingency and
contingent means whatever is
such-and-such could as well be otherwise
in a contingent world there’s no just
cause and effect there’s always the
possibility of a senseless obstacle
getting in our way and it is this
possibility that creates our sense of
the absurd but is what we call
irrational logic are crazy not always
the beginning of a big icky
adventure just for change imagine a life
that would make perfect sense everything
you’ve ever wanted would come true in
time you would find the perfect partner
and the perfect job for you your kids
would be born at precisely the right
time your boss would be empathetic and
full of integrity you’ll never fall ill
during vacation everything would turn
out exactly as planned
would you call it a good life of course
not a good life or die ammonia
the Greek philosophers call it is not
determined by necessity it is determined
by action it requires your active
contribution in a contingent world if
you want a happy life you shouldn’t do
everything as planned
you should go out of your way and use
your heart and your brain and embrace
absurdity as well as the many doubts
that go along with it and by the way
embracing the absurd doesn’t just mean
expecting the unexpected
it means it’s expecting everything and
nothing at the same time your sense of
the absurd could well be the most human
thing about you it could well be the
proof that you’re not an insect and
insects unable to ponder on alternative
facts but who knows you never know you
wake up as a bug maybe even tomorrow
morning so next time you get stuck in a
really absurd situation don’t pity
yourself the absurd reminds you that
life is never what you plant it should
be life is an adventure and the
absurdity is the starting point for a
good life thank you very much
you
Please follow and like us: