I almost forgot: by coincidence I posted an absurdist short story juts last week: here is the link for anyone who desires a few laughs in the style of a Twain satire.
"Absurdism is a philosophical thesis that maintains the universe is fundamentally irrational and meaningless.". Perhaps Absurdism is best thought of as irrational by looking for meaning in the universe in the first place.
We are actually quite ignorant about why persons kill themselves. Only about 12% of suicides leave notes, for instance. But Durkheim famously suggested, in his 1897 'Suicide', that only the structural variables in each case are explanatory. He came up with a four-celled chart - with an empty set cell that I have referred to as the 'fatalistic' category - that covered the bases across different social organizations. Mechanical solidarity promotes altruistic suicide due to collectivist sentiment. Organic solidarity produces two outcomes: in European modernity anomic suicide (the sense of being lost and disconnected in Camus' mood), and in highly individuated North American modernity, that egoistic (the 'goodbye cruel world no one understands me' sensibility). 'Fatalistic' describes a situation wherein the person has too many demands and strictures upon them; certain teen anorexic or trans cases might fit in this originally empty and unnamed category, constructed by Durkheim to balance his model and then only mentioned in a footnote.
If we accept his frame, then personal confrontations with the so-called 'existential anxiety', so beloved of Camus' gang, don't actually factor in at all. Which is presumably good for Tom and his wife!
This whole absurdist question about the meaning of life (and lack thereof) is a regular touchstone for my wife and I, so much so that we regularly describe what we’re doing for the day as pushing the rock up the hill. I still want to push it.
No sir. First regular row.
I almost forgot: by coincidence I posted an absurdist short story juts last week: here is the link for anyone who desires a few laughs in the style of a Twain satire.
https://drgvloewen.substack.com/p/why-they-dont-sell-tums-in-tulsa
"Absurdism is a philosophical thesis that maintains the universe is fundamentally irrational and meaningless.". Perhaps Absurdism is best thought of as irrational by looking for meaning in the universe in the first place.
Thanks for another excellent post, Bryan! Congratulations on 200, and I will continue to ride this bus wherever (and whenever) it rolls.
We are actually quite ignorant about why persons kill themselves. Only about 12% of suicides leave notes, for instance. But Durkheim famously suggested, in his 1897 'Suicide', that only the structural variables in each case are explanatory. He came up with a four-celled chart - with an empty set cell that I have referred to as the 'fatalistic' category - that covered the bases across different social organizations. Mechanical solidarity promotes altruistic suicide due to collectivist sentiment. Organic solidarity produces two outcomes: in European modernity anomic suicide (the sense of being lost and disconnected in Camus' mood), and in highly individuated North American modernity, that egoistic (the 'goodbye cruel world no one understands me' sensibility). 'Fatalistic' describes a situation wherein the person has too many demands and strictures upon them; certain teen anorexic or trans cases might fit in this originally empty and unnamed category, constructed by Durkheim to balance his model and then only mentioned in a footnote.
If we accept his frame, then personal confrontations with the so-called 'existential anxiety', so beloved of Camus' gang, don't actually factor in at all. Which is presumably good for Tom and his wife!
Happy 200 issues. :).
This whole absurdist question about the meaning of life (and lack thereof) is a regular touchstone for my wife and I, so much so that we regularly describe what we’re doing for the day as pushing the rock up the hill. I still want to push it.