Editing Existentialism (section)

=== The absurd ===
{{Main|Absurdism}}
[[File:Sisyphus by von Stuck.jpg|thumb|[[Sisyphus]], the symbol of the absurdity of existence, painting by [[Franz Stuck]] (1920)]]

The notion of the absurd contains the idea that there is no meaning in the world beyond what meaning we give it. This meaninglessness also encompasses the amorality or "unfairness" of the world. This can be highlighted in the way it opposes the traditional [[Abrahamic religions|Abrahamic religious]] perspective, which establishes that life's purpose is the fulfillment of God's commandments.{{sfn|Wartenberg|2008}} This is what gives meaning to people's lives. To live the life of the absurd means rejecting a life that finds or pursues specific meaning for man's existence since there is nothing to be discovered. According to Albert Camus, the world or the human being is not in itself absurd. The concept only emerges through the [[juxtaposition]] of the two; life becomes absurd due to the incompatibility between human beings and the world they inhabit.{{sfn|Wartenberg|2008}} This view constitutes one of the two interpretations of the absurd in existentialist literature. The second view, first elaborated by [[Søren Kierkegaard]], holds that absurdity is limited to actions and choices of human beings. These are considered absurd since they issue from human freedom, undermining their foundation outside of themselves.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The A to Z of Existentialism |last=Michelman |first=Stephen |publisher=The [[Scarecrow Press]], Inc. |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8108-7589-0 |location=Lanham, Maryland |page=27}}</ref>

The absurd contrasts with the claim that "bad things don't happen to good people"; to the world, metaphorically speaking, there is no such thing as a good person or a bad person; what happens happens, and it may just as well happen to a "good" person as to a "bad" person.{{sfn|Crowell|2020|loc=3.1 Anxiety, Nothingness, the Absurd}} Because of the world's absurdity, anything can happen to anyone at any time and a tragic event could plummet someone into direct confrontation with the absurd. Many of the literary works of [[Søren Kierkegaard|Kierkegaard]], [[Samuel Beckett|Beckett]], [[Franz Kafka|Kafka]], [[Fyodor Dostoevsky|Dostoevsky]], [[Eugène Ionesco|Ionesco]], [[Miguel de Unamuno]], [[Luigi Pirandello]],<ref name=luigitheatre>{{cite book |last1=Bassnett |first1=Susan |last2=Lorch |first2=Jennifer |title=Luigi Pirandello in the Theatre |date=March 18, 2014 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FpwiAwAAQBAJ&q=existentialist&pg=PA182 |access-date=26 March 2015 |isbn=978-1-134-35114-5 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref name=understandex>{{cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=Mel |last2=Rodgers |first2=Nigel |title=Understanding Existentialism: Teach Yourself |date=2010 |publisher=[[Hodder & Stoughton]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vfczAgAAQBAJ&q=pirandello+existentialism&pg=PT105 |isbn=978-1-4441-3421-6 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref name=crisisconsciousness>{{cite book |last1=Caputi |first1=Anthony Francis |title=Pirandello and the Crisis of Modern Consciousness |date=1988 |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Qv2nuJF7yYC&q=pirandello+existentialist+absurdity&pg=PA80 |isbn=978-0-252-01468-0 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref name=masks>{{cite book |last1=Mariani |first1=Umberto |title=Living Masks: The Achievement of Pirandello |date=2010 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vBviYn43H34C&q=pirandello+existential+absurd&pg=PT178 |access-date=26 March 2015 |isbn=978-1-4426-9314-2 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> [[Jean-Paul Sartre|Sartre]], [[Joseph Heller]], and [[Albert Camus|Camus]] contain descriptions of people who encounter the absurdity of the world.

It is because of the devastating awareness of meaninglessness that Camus claimed in ''[[The Myth of Sisyphus]]'' that "There is only one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide." Although "prescriptions" against the possible deleterious consequences of these kinds of encounters vary, from Kierkegaard's religious "stage" to Camus' insistence on persevering in spite of absurdity, the concern with helping people avoid living their lives in ways that put them in the perpetual danger of having everything meaningful break down is common to most existentialist philosophers. The possibility of having everything meaningful break down poses a threat of [[Quietism (philosophy)|quietism]], which is inherently against the existentialist philosophy.<ref>{{cite book |first=Jean-Paul |last=Sartre |author-link=Jean-Paul Sartre |url=http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm |title=Existentialism is a Humanism |date=1946 |via=[[Marxists Internet Archive]] |access-date=2010-03-08}}</ref> It has been said that the possibility of [[suicide]] makes all humans existentialists. The ultimate hero of absurdism lives without meaning and faces suicide without succumbing to it.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Suicide and Self-Deception |first=E. |last=Keen |journal=[[Psychoanalytic Review]] |year=1973 |volume=60 |issue=4 |pages=575–85 |pmid=4772778 |url=http://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=PSAR.060.0575A}}</ref>