Nihilism vs. Existentialism vs. Absurdism — Explained and Compared
In the 19th and 20th centuries, modernity reached its peak, and the religious worldview began to disintegrate, leading to a crisis of meaning. This lack of meaning is what is commonly known as Nihilism. Nihilism can be defined as the realisation that there is no objective meaning to our lives. Philosophers, once again, began to ponder the age-old philosophical question — what is the meaning of life?
Nihilism prompted philosophers to think deeply about the problem, and two schools of thought emerged — existentialism and absurdism. In this article, we will explore what Nihilism is and how these two schools of thought have attempted to manage the crisis it represents.
For the religious individual, life has an objective meaning. In the Judaeo-Christian traditions, the history of this world is bookended by God’s creation on one end and Judgement Day with Heaven and Hell on the other. On the other hand, Buddhists and Hindus believe in the story of karma and the endless cycle of birth and rebirths that it results in. In these Eastern and Western systems of belief, humanity has a privileged place in reality.
However, with the rise of modernity, the religious mindset has lost its hold, and the objective meaning of life has dissolved. As we develop a better and better model of reality and no longer rely on divinities to explain the world, we begin to jettison these divinities and the beliefs attached to them.
In the 19th century, modernity moved into the secular mode with a number of explosive works. The publishing of Ludwig Feuerbach’s The Essence of Christianity in 1841 explored the idea that God was a psychological projection of humanity. Feuerbach was a major influence on Karl Marx, who said that “There is no other road for you to truth and freedom except that leading through the brook of fire (the Feuerbach).”
Following Feuerbach, the real stake in the heart of the religious narrative was the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1859. This cultural trend culminated in the catastrophic event that Nietzsche’s Madman talks about in The Gay Science. Nietzsche’s madman gives a speech to the people that echoes God’s speech at the climax of the Book of Job.
The death of God throws our entire relationship to reality — our life’s compass — into disarray. To put it more philosophically, God was the foundation of external values and of objective meaning. Without God, the external world lacks a purpose and meaning by which we can orient ourselves. The objective ground of morality and human purpose has fallen away, and this vacuum is disastrous.
Existentialism and absurdism are two schools of thought that have attempted to manage the crisis of Nihilism. Existentialists believe that individuals are free to create their own meaning in life, and therefore, the responsibility of creating meaning falls entirely on the individual. Absurdism, on the other hand, argues that there is no inherent meaning to life, but humans still search for it. This search for meaning is absurd since the world is inherently meaningless.
In conclusion, Nihilism is the realization that there is no objective meaning to our lives. It is a crisis that has emerged due to the dissolution of the religious worldview. The rise of modernity has led to the death of God, and this vacuum is disastrous. However, existentialism and absurdism have attempted to manage the crisis by suggesting that individuals are free to create their own meaning in life or that the search for meaning is absurd since the world is inherently meaningless.
