Troll! In the dungeon!
–Professor Quirrell, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Or, The 4 Schools of Modern Thought as applied to that feeling you feel when you don’t know what to do
But why?
Personally, as I’ve aged through my 20’s, there are a few conversations I find myself revisiting as life grows and transitions to new challenges and expectations. Among them, I’d say this one has recurred the most!
A troll in the dungeon is a situation for which all characters involved are completely unprepared. Who even knew they had a dungeon? Let alone a troll inside it? How does someone reconcile the unknown unknown of a troll materializing in an as yet inscrutable dungeon?
Well, how do our heroes prevail? By sheer force of flailing incompetence of course! Nobody has a plan! But therein lies the poetry.
Tell me more about this dungeon
As you may have guessed, we’re talking about ye olde existential crisis, or, to parallel: crisis, in the existence. This can begin as the lingering uncertainty someone feels when they doubt the decisions they’ve accepted in life, and start to consider where those decisions are taking them. Is this direction directed somewhere that was intended or desired? …was it thoughtless? Will all this effort produce an outcome that is meaningful? …what makes something meaningful? …and thus the yarn unravels.
The troll-on-top of this sundae of a situation is that most people are completely unprepared to deal with these questions when they arise. There you are, happily plodding along on your day-to-day, when suddenly -panic!- and -dread!- strike out of somewhere unrealized you never knew you had within yourself… especially when you feel you are falling short of the goals you may have set for yourself, or you begin to question whether those goals were ever yours to begin with, or if your goals have changed without your realization, or if those goals are completely intractable… or, if you realize you’ve never had any goals at all.
For the baby boomers, this might have occurred as the midlife crisis. For millennials and precocious peoples, it could be the quarter-life crisis. The reality is, you’ll have this conversation with yourself every time something doesn’t quite work out as you imagined, or if you’re not quite sure where you’re headed next.
But how can it be unexpected and terrible every time if it’s recurring?
A man’s subconscious self is not the ideal companion. It lurks for the greater part of his life in some dark den of its own, hidden away, and emerges only to taunt and deride and increase the misery of a miserable hour.
–P. G. Wodehouse, Uneasy Money
Because every crisis is different! And, if earlier crises weren’t truly reconciled, it’s not like questions unanswered stop seeking their answers. They just multiply unseen like an egg-sack full of spiders to one day explode in a catastrophe of skittering legs and panicked twitching.
As unique as all these answers and situations can be, there certainly can be a common understanding to how people can confront this manner of what was once considered spiritual adversity …but in a secular world where faith and religious guidance are ever further removed from the lives people actually lead, where can someone seek a disciplined approach to their urgent and burning questions?
Enter the philosopher (and his stone!).
Oh bother …look, it’s been good talking, but I gotta–
Wait!
We’re just going to focus on the Modernist schools! Since they emerged contemporaneously with the kinds of lives people live today and all, it makes sense that they would discuss the neuroses that afflict people the most in this day and age. After all, it’s been a while since base transgressions have been so simply verboten as sin …or since a chaste life lived without ambition has been considered the epitome of virtue.
So! As subtle and confounding as it can be to navigate the narrow path to personal success in the ever-branching decision-tree in this world with diminished consequences and infinite opportunities, it helps to start at the very beginning …by addressing a decision everyone inherits simply by waking up every morning and continuing their pursuit of daily nutrition: choosing to live.
The Three Suicides
Granted, people kill themselves out of incompetence, spite and emotional impulse all the time… but given an environment in absence of acute distress, we’re talking about willfully choosing to live a life of fulfillment and self-worth versus choosing to live in a state of mind which can allow for giving up in the most final sense. Why face down the troll instead of surrendering to the inevitable?
Much like a surgeon has their scalpel, a philosopher has their unhappy thoughts. Let’s consider choosing to live from the opposite position: choosing to die. The first suicide is the one everyone knows: physical suicide, giving up on life–ending it. The second suicide is: passive suicide, giving up on the meaning of life–when one is indifferent to their own demise. The third and least discussed suicide is: philosophical suicide, giving up on the pursuit of the meaning of life–accepting that meaning isn’t necessary for the life one chooses to live.
The important thing to note is that all of those suicides must be committed in reverse order to arrive at the point of actually giving up. It’s hard to give up on life if you find meaning in it because you’re actively pursuing that meaning. So you can say every step of the way, you’re one step closer to not choosing to live. To guard against choosing to be less-alive, how does one promote philosophical engagement in their lives?
The 4 Schools of Modern Thought
Different schools of philosophy attempt to address this tendency to existential uncertainty from different angles. We call them schools of thought. We’ll see what the Modernist schools have to say about philosophical engagement (hereafter called “pursuing the meaning”) but first, some definitions:
Objective meaning means that the purpose of life can be stated in absolute terms. For example: the meaning of life is the number 42. I said it, you heard it, and it applies to everyone. It’s also ridiculous. A more religiously informed purpose would be: to honor your God in the manner your religion allows. These are universal statements in that they would apply equally to everybody.
Relative meaning, in comparison, would be something like: to nourish the hungry and heal the sick. This would amount to a personal mission informed by an individual’s sense of empathy–a sense of empathy everyone might not share. Some might prefer to immerse themselves in the fathomless deeps of scientific research, instead. Or, give the wealth of their attention to raising a family. Or maybe a combination of different things.
Pursuing the meaning amounts to realizing that what you’re doing isn’t what you were meant to do, and changing tracks to what you think you should be doing next (this can be what you’re actually doing every day as an Empiricist, or how you’re thinking about it as a Rationalist). It can be a bit subtle, and we’ll explore it more in depth in a bit!
With these new concepts in hand, we’re now equipped to consider the 4 schools of modern thought: Theistic Existentialism, Atheistic Existentialism, Absurdism, and Nihilism. The differences between them is how they contend with the 3 ideas of meaning discussed above. The chart below lays out everything you need to know:
As you can see (more implicitly for Theistic Existentialism), all of these frameworks allow for self-determination in the pursuit of meaning. Compared to the others, Absurdism is very reluctant with its proclamations–it’s the most authentic to deductive logic amongst the Modernist schools, hence the caution in its claims, and its unique relevance in developing personally-informed self-esteem.
Reductively, you could say that all these philosophical roads lead to Rome, since they allow for meaning to be defined by personal deliberation. In my opinion: Theistic Existentialism suits evolving religious expectations quite well; Atheistic Existentialism works well for people committing to external obligations like a family or a specific cause; Absurdism dovetails quite well with a scientifically informed world-view and a situation lacking external obligations; Nihilism, while it pairs well with base Utilitarianism, should probably be avoided since it requires philosophical suicide and potentially encourages passive suicide. When paired with Utilitarianism, it certainly does not provide any latitude for transcendental pursuits, such as love.
To elaborate, I would say the Existentialisms are equivalent in that they avoid internal uncertainty by anchoring to external motivators. They can also be more brittle if those external motivators suddenly disappear or otherwise alienate the individual. Absurdism provides a basis for motivation using only internal factors and encouraging authenticity to individual impulse; though, it might get exhausting as the individual gets older. Nihilism is what’s waiting at the bottom of Nietzsche’s abyss if you don’t manage to grab onto anything on the way down. I would say Absurdism is the last filamentous barrier that can stop your free-fall, like a spider-web, but it only exists if you really believe. Like Tinkerbell.
Let’s investigate a bit further what these ideas entail, what it’s meant to pursue the meaning in recent history, and how it might change for you as you get older.
Nihilism and the Western Condition
In the happy night,
In secret, when none saw me,
Nor I beheld aught,
Without light or guide, save that which burned in my
heart.–St. John of Cross, Dark Night of the Soul
Considering those words were written in the 16th century, this whole existential ordeal has been going on since at least the Renaissance; though, it was previously articulated as a spiritual crisis where the faithful would feel discouraged in their ministrations. This state of questioning could be misconstrued as Nihilism (apostasy to use the vocabulary of the day) when contrasted against an absolutist religious framework, but thinkers from this era concluded that doubt and uncertainty can typify the spiritual journey. And that this doubt (which we’ve described as the existential crisis) leads to questioning that can amount to pursuing the meaning of life, in that the questioner realizes that they find something lacking. Not acknowledging that uncertainty would amount to a philosophical suicide in our Modernist framework.
Existentialism and Man’s Search for Meaning
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
–Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
Most young people that feel doubt overcoming them today are often directed to the seminal work of Viktor Frankl, a concentration camp survivor and Theistic Existentialist. His grand conclusion is that the meaning of life is love, and he comes to this conclusion after suffering the unbelievable strife meted out by the Nazis against people of the Jewish faith. Since we’re so far removed from the aftermath of the war, it’s important to reflect that the outcome was a sort of existential crisis for all of the Western world–most of all in Europe. In that period of realization, the horrors that were wrought in the name of national purpose were brought to light–and whole societies began to wonder if they were perhaps blinded by their dogmatism. It can be argued that the liberal policies that followed throughout, afterwards, were directly promoted by the collective conclusion that true resolution to man’s suffering can only be found in contributing to the elevation of all mankind, and not mere individuals or ethnic groups leading a cloistered existence.
However, an ordinary person with ordinary means might find it difficult to reconcile such a grand vision with the extent of their abilities. Or find that their interests pull them more inward and away from the call to public service.
Absurdism and The Myth of Sisyphus
Which brings us to Absurdism. The most important work in modern Absurdism is Albert Camus’ essay on the Greek Myth of Sisyphus. To paraphrase: Sisyphus, the Greek hero, is cursed to roll a giant rock up a hill for all eternity. Once he summits the top of the hill, the rock rolls all the way back down, forcing him to recollect the rock and roll it all the way back up. He repeats this process over, and over …and over, never giving up. This characteristic perseverance is why he is not merely a Greek hero, but an Absurdist hero.
Pursuing the meaning amounts, figuratively, to rolling a rock up a hill. Camus’ calls for active revolt against succumbing to the mundane absurdities that can afflict someone’s life. In Sisyphus’ case, it is equally absurd to keep rolling the rock up the hill as it is to let it roll down the hill. Neither will present objective progress to an as-yet unstated goal. This relates the fundamental dilemma everyone faces when they start feeling those inklings of uncertainty–Where am I going? Why am I doing this? The only guidance proffered in this situation is that rolling the rock up the hill for eternity feels better than sitting down and giving up, in the hope that–maybe–through the act of trying, the rock will reach some destination; whereas giving up and letting the rock roll away guarantees, absolutely, that it will not.
As a thought exercise, it’s helpful to acknowledge the absurdity of everything you can encounter in a day. For instance, it’s pretty absurd that the world votes into power some breathtakingly incompetent politicians, but things just keep swimming along, swimmingly. To the contrary, it’s also absurd that great civilizations have collapsed from something as arbitrary as drought. Or, to bring it home, it is equally absurd to continue on or to stand still.
Naked Before the Absurd
One of the reasons Absurdism is so attractive a framework is that it acknowledges that all world views, Modernist or otherwise, are as equally valid as the other. Just as faiths argue about the one-true-god, philosophies argue about the one-true-truth. The results of these time-old conflicts, by and large, are the same. Nobody can really speak with any more authority with regards to meaning than anybody else. Theistic Existentialists, of course, express the faith that they are operating on behalf of a higher power; the other three schools demand more empirical evidence for what they would be willing to acknowledge as true. Neither outlook can be objectively proven.
That fact that no person can speak with what amounts to objective facts about a question so fundamental as, “why?”, in the universal sense, is described as being naked before the absurd. If all claims are as equally absurd as one another, individuals cannot claim any greater agency with regard to their own beliefs. This acceptance of mutual unknowing is why Absurdism considers itself absurd.
And finally: Radical Freedom
To extend Camus’ description of pursuing meaning amounting to rolling a rock up a hill, it can be said that deciding to keep rolling the same rock, letting the rock go and rolling a different rock only to come back and re-roll the first rock, and all such iterations of rock-rolling are perfectly fine. As soon as you get tired of the rock, roll the next one! Want to travel the world? Do it. Become a great chef? Do it. A world-class animator? Why not? Loving partner? Of course! Spend the next 3 weeks laying in bed, covered in Cheeto dust, and contemplating the sad things in life? Definitely do it.
Absurdism offers no opinion between Empiricism or Rationalism. All it says is to pursue all your thoughts and actions with the same strenuous effort and commitment that you would if you were rolling a giant rock up a hill. If you’re going to be a lazy layabout, really commit to being a layabout. You’ll tire of it soon enough and move onto the next rock. Immersing yourself in your wants until you find what it was you wanted most all along is how the Absurdist defines meaning in their life. Liberating yourself to make those brash and potentially scary decisions is what amounts to radical freedom. Think of it as the freedom to try. And, the freedom to fail.
…but in the post-scarcity world, what does it mean to want? And how accepting is this world we live in of this kind of recurring self-upheaval?
I’m totally groaning over here
In Absurdism, a simple impulse is a want. And when an individual brings their full passion to bear on that impulse, they’ll find themselves swept up in their own momentum. It encourages an active interest in the world and its possibilities. As for being allowed the opportunity to chase impulses willy-nilly, it’s certainly encouraged in the West for young people to experiment and discover. As a counterpoint, though, young people in more comfortable appointments might find they never learned how to really want for themselves–like the NEET, or Hikikomori phenomena from Japan, or other young precariats in other cultures.
To borrow how Eastern philosophies model life in stages, I believe there is a philosophical cycle that people mirror as they get older and grow out of their precariousness. When they’re very young and nothing matters, people are essentially Nihilists. Once they have to decide what to do with themselves, hit their first crisis doing so, and attempt to discern what their lives were meant to be, their lives pattern after Absurdists. Finally, after they find themselves in more permanent circumstances, and have settled on their vision for themselves, they may settle into Existentialism and the guarantees it provides when standing comparatively still.
Anecdotally, failure to transition when life calls for it can exacerbate that feeling of philosophical crisis. For instance, when a successful relationship demands a peregrinating Absurdist to not take the call to radical freedom, they must confront the necessary philosophical changes to leading a more Existentialist lifestyle. They may even have to compromise on the authenticity of self they embraced so fully as they were finding themselves. This is okay.
Now what?
Since philosophers tend to dwell on the melancholic aspects of unmeaning, I don’t recommend reading them! Though there are certainly recommended readings for the nascent Absurdist to hone their understanding:
–The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus
–Catch-22, Joseph Heller
–The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
–the many works of P. G. Wodehouse and Terry Pratchett
–and those of Søren Kierkegaard
So why is the troll in the dungeon so relatable? Because as ridiculous as it is, it happens to everyone. People, when given the chance, seek meaning in their lives. And a life without meaning is a life unrequited.
And, what is the Philosopher’s Stone? A stand-in for that special something that allows us grace and certainty as we continue our long march to the inevitable? A philosophical touchstone made literal, perhaps?
My hope is that these more current interpretations of life, the universe, and everything in it posited by the Modernist schools can be for you–like they have been for me–a touchstone that helps you face down that troll ransacking your dungeon when, like our heroes, you have no idea what you’re doing.
Good luck!
