Name: The philosophy of absurdism | What is the point of life? | A-Z of ISMs Episode 1 - BBC Ideas
Uploaded: 2025-11-28T04:27:12.000Z
Duration: 2 min 43 s
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Most philosophical isms are attempts to make sense of the world.

But one ism wastes no time on this topic at all.

In answer to the question, what is the meaning of life?

Life is pointless, existence is meaningless, and look how many peas I have in this pan.

Absurdism was pioneered by the Danish philosopher Sren Kierkegaard, who said that as the reality of God is beyond human comprehension, it is absurd for humans to have faith in God.

In the 20th century, absurdists removed the concept of God entirely from the equation, choosing to make meaning and meaninglessness an entirely human issue.

Albert Camus believed that as life is meaningless, we can have one of two responses.

We can end it all, or we can find our own meaning.

You can, as one of his characters does, spend your life transferring peas from one pan to another, or you can jump off a bridge.

Absurdism is an ism whose influence has been strong in the arts.

The idea that nothing has meaning is a liberating one, particularly in areas like literature and drama, which have traditionally been all about the search for meaning.

Most notably, absurdism spawned the theat of the absurd, probably the only theatrical movement inspired by philosophy.

The Theatre of the Absurd gave us the French writer Eugene Ionesco, whose play Rhinoceros was about the dangers of conformity and featured a lot of rhinoceroses.

The Irish genius Samuel Beckett, whose work is less rhinoceros based, and The British writer N.F.

simpson, who wasn't really an absurdist at all, but

is very, very funny indeed, especially in his absurd masterpiece, A Resounding Tinkle.

Beckett, by the way, could also be very serious.

And as for Ionesco, the critic Kenneth Tynan famously once said, once you've seen all of Ionesco's plays, you have seen one of them, which is absurd but true.

Absurdism suits comedy, in fact, because the best comedy is essentially absurdist.

And perhaps this is why absurdism will never really go away.

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The philosophy of absurdism | What is the point of life? | A-Z of ISMs Episode 1 - BBC Ideas

essentially

matter

concept

comprehension