Philosophy as a meaning of life

 In the previous blog, we talked about how philosophy deals with metaphysical concepts. While philosophy can be considered as root to many fields the mainstream use of philosophy is used to give life meaning. In this post, ill describe 3 main ways to deal with the meaning of life. These are my own opinions and my understanding of the subject, feel free to research or criticize.

Nihilism

Nihilism is the approach to negate everything and the conclusion that life is meaningless. Nihilism is the way of thinking that values and truths are subjective and therefore it's meaningless. This form of nihilism is regarded as existential nihilism. This type is nihilism is portrayed in Bojack horseman an animated series where Bojack constantly tries to give his life meaning through his actions and then he realizes that his attempts are futile.

Another type of nihilism is cosmic nihilism where you are aware that the ideas of the self and values are meaningless. Cosmic nihilism takes a purely rational and scientific worldview that we are just a species of apes hurtling on a rock. This type of nihilism is portrayed in the animated show, Rick and Morty.

 

Existentialism

Existentialism is an approach to cope up or overcome nihilism. It argues that if there is no inherit meaning we can create our own meaning. Previously religion held the responsibility to give people meaning, now the rise of science and skepticism is destroying the chances to hold a religious worldview. And to fight with the nihilism many philosopher have tried to establish the meaning of their own.

To create meaning is to create your own value system that you follow, your own truths and your own myths. Soren Kierkegaard is considered as the father of existentialism, many philosophers like Friedrich Nietzche, Arthur Schopenhauer, etc have also developed existential philosophy.

 

Absurdism

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

Albert Camus developed this philosophy as Absurdism. In his main work, The myth of Sisyphus he describes what exactly this Absurdism means. To him the difference between the human desire to give meaning to life and the nothingness of universe is Absurd. Or in other words, the very act of humans to give life meaning is absurd. He states that the question of suicide is the most urgent problem because at suicide one judges its own life as meaningless and not worth living, he explains this problem of suicide in great detail in the myth of Sisyphus. While he is considered as existential philosopher by many, while living he denied putting him under that category. Nihilism acknowledges the meaninglessness but does nothing to solve it, the existentialism of any kind either religious or subjective takes the leap of faith and ends the problem without solving. Absurdism on the other hand embraces the problem and tries to solve it. It does not lean on to create meaning out of its existence and also does not leave the problem.

These were the short introduction to the topics as I understand them. Comment down your thoughts. I would encourage everyone to research more on the topic as these are crude summaries and does not and cannot cover the whole range of reasoning.