Absurdism: A Subcategory Of Existentialism

Broad existentialism as a philosophical subject is about values, freedom, and personal identity, meaning nihilism, moral realism, certain kinds of theism, and absurdism are all deeply existential in nature.  For some reason, absurdism is sometimes said to not be a form of existentialism, despite it directly pertaining to issues of meaning and the personal desire for something to be genuinely meaningful.  This very blatantly relates to the concepts of personal identity, the choices one makes in light of existential uncertainty, and whether or not objective values exist.  To deny that absurdism is a type of existentialism is analogous to denying that Christianity is a religion or that hypocrisy is a type of irrationality.

Absurdism is a specific subcategory of existential philosophy centering on the fact that it is impossible for any being with human limitations to prove that either objective meaning exists or that nihilism is true (which, if correct, means it would be true that there is no such thing as meaning, only perceptions and preferences about the idea of meaning).  Absurdism is not relativism, total epistemological skepticism, or nihilism, with the first two being self-refuting and impossible and the latter being unprovable.  It is the true ideology holding that one cannot know if meaning exists or not, which leaves anyone sincere about seeking meaning in the position of craving or pursuing something that might not exist or might not take the form they expect if it does exist.

In other words, absurdism is a kind of rationalistically valid skepticism about something that is at the heart of existentialism: whether or not there is anything existentially significant about anything in existence rather than just the subjective longing for meaning.  Only an irrational person would not grasp how this is an existential philosophy even if it is more accurate and specific than many other forms of existentialism.  This is comparable to how some people pretend like Christianity is somehow not a religion even though it is a systematic theological framework that goes beyond mere theism and has its own set of values and metaphysical beings.  Of course Christianity is a religion, just as absurdism is clearly a type of existentialism.

That absurdism is an ideological subcategory of existentialism is yet another logical fact that would not need to be focused on in this way except as a response to imbecilic assumptions and false distinctions made by other people.  It would not even need to be focused on except as a reaction to the ideas of irrational people, unlike logical axioms, the general epistemological disconnect between sensory perceptions and the real external world, and so on.  One might encounter this contradictory misconception that absurdism is not an existential philosophy from time to time, but it is by no means difficult to fully disprove to oneself or others in a very short amount of time.  Any ideas that have to do with meaning and general values are existential to some extent.