Grappling with Meaning: Nietzsche, Camus, and Sartre's Philosophy

The contemporary issue of humankind is finding meaning in a seemingly meaningless existence, as explored by philosophers Nietzsche, Camus, and Sartre.

### Navigating the Absurdity of Life: Insights from Nietzsche, Camus, and Sartre
* 🌌 Our knowledge, conditions, and capabilities as a species have been progressing at unfathomable rates, yet each new generation seems to be **sinking into greater states of hopelessness and cynicism**.
* 🤔 The contemporary issue of humankind is finding motivation and a sense of meaning during a time when **existence has revealed itself to be or appears to be meaningless**.
* 🧠 German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche recognized that there is **no universal objective truth** to be known or discovered in life, and he placed the **creation of meaning in the hands of the individual**.
* Nietzsche's concept of the **Übermensch, or Overman**, serves as an idealized version of oneself, representing a **perfect and powerful being** to strive toward.
* 🤯 20th-century writer and philosopher Albert Camus defined humanity's relationship with the universe and our pursuit of meaning within it as "**the absurd**."
* 🛤 Camus suggested that in recognizing the **absurdity of life**, we can transcend it and find, create, and appreciate things that are **interesting and personally meaningful**.
* 🤝 20th-century French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre argued that since we are not created with a specific purpose prior to existence, we create our purpose through the **choices and actions we take in life**.
* 🏗 The challenge found in the whirlpool of uncertainty, absurdity, and responsibility is perhaps the **unavoidable price** of the great gift we are all given at birth to **understand and create the meaning of meaning itself**.

this episode of after skool was written and 
narrated by Robert Pantano. The writer and creator of Pursuit of Wonder. Check out more 
videos on Pursuit of W's YouTube channel. Our knowledge, our conditions, and our capabilities 
as a species have and continue to progress at unfathomable rates. And yet, with each new 
generation in the modern world, it seems as though we have and continue to sink into greater 
states of hopelessness and cynicism. It is no secret that an underlying tension between each new 
generation, from Gen X to Millennial, Millennial to Gen Z, and almost certainly whatever is next to 
come, is an increasing degree of pessimism that makes the previous generation look almost bubbly 
and naive. Displays of this can be found in media, in art, in advertising, and in humor as things 
like irony and dourismar over time. To paraphrase 19th-century philosopher Friedrich, optimism 
is dead, and we have killed it fundamentally. So many of us have outgrown more comfortable 
short-sighted narratives and explanations of

life with increasing knowledge and awareness. We have now moved into a new realm in which there appears to be no clear narrative or reason for life at all. What we seem to be left with is absurdity and meaninglessness to everything. We have reached the top of this world, and yet we see nothing from it. This is perhaps one of, if not the greatest contemporary issue of humankind: finding motivation and a sense of meaning during a time in which existence has revealed itself to be, or at least appears to be, meaningless. In order to take any steps towards trying to grapple with this problem of meaninglessness, it can be helpful to take a few steps back, all the way back to the late 19th century. Here, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche would find himself positioned at the forefront of the disintegration of meaning in the Western World. A primary aim of his life's work would become centered on this problem. At the foundation of Nietzsche's philosophy was the recognition

that there is no universal objective truth to be known or discovered in life. There are no facts, only interpretations. He wrote and denied the very structure of any sort of truth with a capital T and suggested rather that all attempts to find one are misguided and are what prevent modern man from rediscovering any meaning in life. The pursuit of universal objectivity or meaning in the world beyond this one takes the spirit out of the present earthly human experience of meaning, which is inherently subjective, independent, and expressive. From here, he argued that the individual should thus turn away from dependence on any universalities, collective experiences, or cultural mechanisms for meaning, and instead he placed the creation of meaning squarely in the hands of the individual, suggesting that it is found in the personal pursuit of creative expression and subjective greatness. This philosophy would be embodied in what he would term the Ubermensch or Overman, which he would first introduce in his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The Overman is

described by nche as a sort of defiant, confident, independent individual who pursues their personal desires with vigor and dignifies their independent beliefs unapologetically. Someone who deviates from the collective, exhibits strategic selfishness, and acts with a sort of aggressiveness and grandiosity. These characteristics were justified in n's view by the fact that a new morality that opposed the moral views rooted in Christianity, which praise weakness and modesty, was needed to better suit the natural condition of the human experience, which he believed involved the desire for vigor, power, and greatness. This view is not without reasonable critiques and unreasonable misinterpretations; however, perhaps what is more important than n's definition of the Overman is what the concept serves to represent in slightly broader terms. N sets up the Overman to function as a sort of idealized version of oneself, an image of a perfect and powerful being who has overcome all their fears and deficiencies, which one can and should set goals to strive toward.

course as an ideal, it can never truly be reached, but that is functionally the point. The desire and striving toward the ideal of the Overman serve as perpetual fuel for the process of self-growth as one works through a continuous cycle of self-dissatisfaction, self-improvement, and self-rediscovery over and over. For in this process, what you would term self-overcoming is fundamental to answering and resolving the problem of meaning and value in life. So long as one establishes one's goals of growth in the name of what one deems to be an idealized, life-affirming version of themselves, this process transmutes life into something worthwhile and personally redeemable. If we have our own why in life, we shall get along with almost any how, wrote several decades later 20th-century writer and philosopher Albert Camus would come into the picture, largely picking up the baton from Nietzsche. What makes Camus's insights worth stopping at on the topic of meaning is the way

in which he defined and engaged with the problem, 
cimu defined Humanity's relationship with the universe and our pursuit of meaning within it as 
the absurd. Camus writes, if I see a man armed only with a sword attack a group of machine guns, I 
shall consider his act to be absurd, but it is solely by virtue of the disproportion between his 
intention and the reality he will encounter, of the contradiction I notice between his true strength 
and the aim he has in view. From the simplest to the most complex, the magnitude of the absurdity 
will be in direct ratio to the distance between the two terms of my comparison. The Absurd 
is essentially a divorce; it lies in neither of the elements compared. It is born of their 
confrontation. In other words, neither Humanity nor the universe is necessarily absurd on its 
own, but rather their relationship is absurd. As we exist with and act out on our innate desire 
for meaning, reason, and order, the universe

responds with none of the above. Thus, what we want and expect from the universe is fundamentally in contradiction with what we get. Like n Kimu, rejects the nihilistic hopelessness that might sound like a reasonable conclusion from this, and instead, somewhat deviating from n Kimu, provokes the absurdity of Life as a means of finding worthy and potent experience within it. For Camu to become aware of and accept the absurdity of life is to transcend it. And being conscious and appreciative of the absurdity, we can more freely look for, find, and create things that are interesting and personally meaningful. F Camu continuing on in life and using its absurdity as a means of virtue exploration, art, and unique experience is perhaps the highest and most worthy achievement. It is thus the absurdity of life that makes it worth living in the first place. Furthermore, Kimu suggested that in recognizing our absurdity, we can better accept and share value with other people because we can

better understand that all people are struggling victims of the Absurd although these Concepts from n and kamu are very useful there are still of course significant challenges to creating one's own meaning one especially difficult challenge is deciding how to go about doing so with essentially an infinite number of choices and combinations of choices for how to determine one's ideal self what to strive for and what to do with the absurdity of everything the anxiety of choosing properly can be difficult to Bear ironically though the choice we make here and reaction to the anxiety of choice is perhaps the most important choice choice of all around the same time as Kimu and following a similar thread of thought as both Kimu and N the work of 20th century French philosopher Jean Paul SRA helps provide us with useful insights and motivation for getting over this hurdle SRA argued that since in his view we are not created with a specific purpose prior to existence we create our

purpose through the choices and actions we take in life. Man SRA writes is nothing else but what he purposes. He exists solely in so far as he realizes himself. Is therefore nothing else but the sum of his actions. Nothing else but what his life is. Since this responsibility can be so overwhelming, the easier knee-jerk response is just not choosing to mindlessly assimilate popular beliefs, follow standard routes of life, and deflect nearly all the responsibility of choice onto others. To refer to this, however, as bad faith, a form of lying to ourselves and denying our basic freedom. In other words, it is a short-term attempt to dampen the anxiety of being that in turn costs us our authentic self and experience of life. Even choosing to not choose is still a choice. There is no escaping the requirements of choice, and this is perhaps the fundamental existential determination: to choose or not to choose. In this choice, one either harnesses the anguish of human freedom or relinquishes it. Either builds a life of intention or lives.

a life of complacency SRA Camu n and many others 
unmentioned saw the ground crumbling underneath them and made it part of their life's work to 
preserve deserve some of the foundation for us what we are left with now and perhaps what we will 
be left with for a very long time is merely that foundation on which we must build our own homes 
we must realize that this condition is not Barren but ripe for opportunity that it permits us to 
no longer be subservient to some specific Grand meaning or template of life that we don't have 
to discover or join in on someone else's ultimate answer rather we can and should attempt to create 
and build in this world using the blueprint of our own design Dy it is of course all incredibly 
hard and complicated but the challenge found in this in the whirlpool of uncertainty absurdity 
and responsibility is perhaps the unavoidable price of the great gift that we are all given at 
Birth to face up to the abyss to feel the anguish

of choice and potentiality to bear the weight of self. All are but visceral, humbling, and beautiful reminders of the potency of life running through our veins. We are perhaps the only stop on this evolutionary train that is outside the tunnel of darkness, able to take the material of everything and make it into something beautiful, or helpful, or interesting to understand and create the meaning of meaning itself, and to do so just because we can, because the universe, for some reason, gave us a blank page to write on. We hope you enjoyed this collaboration. It was comprised of a few modified excerpts from my book, The Art of Living: A Meaningless Existence. If you enjoyed this video, be sure to check it out. It's a collection of essays that journey through philosophy and grapple with ideas and topics similar to this video. The link for it is in the description [Music] below.

How to Find Meaning in a Meaningless World - Written by Pursuit of Wonder

We cannot change the world. But we can change ourselves...and that will change the world. The goal of this channel is to empower the individual and deliver profound ideas through art.

Everyone is welcome to contribute. If you have a good idea for an animation please send them to Mark at AfterSkool100@gmail.com

After Skool

The Contemporary Issue of Meaninglessness and Friedrich Nietzsche's Philosophy

Robert Pantano explores the increasing pessimism across generations in the modern world.

The contemporary issue of finding motivation and meaning in life is a significant challenge for humankind.

Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy emphasizes the subjective creation of meaning by the individual, rejecting the pursuit of universal truth and instead focusing on personal creative expression.

Nietzsche's Overman embodies defiance, confidence, and independence, challenging traditional Christian morality.

The Overman serves as an idealized version of self, representing a perpetual cycle of self-improvement and growth.

This concept is crucial in resolving the problem of meaning and value in life, as it transforms life into something personally redeemable.

Camus's Concept of the Absurd in Humanity's Relationship with the Universe

Camus defines the absurd as the contradiction between humanity's desire for meaning and the universe's response.

He rejects nihilism and encourages embracing the absurdity of life to find unique experiences.

Camus believes that accepting the absurdity allows for a more meaningful existence and the ability to connect with others.

The Struggle of Making Choices in the Face of Absurdity

The concepts of Camus and Sartre provide insights into creating meaning in the face of the Absurd.

The overwhelming anxiety of making choices is a significant challenge in determining one's ideal self.

Sartre argues that we are responsible for creating our own purpose through the choices we make, and avoiding this responsibility is a form of bad faith.

Embracing the Challenge of Creating Meaning in Life

Many individuals, including SRA Camu, have embraced the idea of building their own meaning in life rather than adhering to a pre-existing template.

This approach is seen as a ripe opportunity to break free from traditional expectations and design one's own path.

The author emphasizes that despite the challenges and responsibilities, the ability to create meaning is a precious gift that empowers individuals to make life beautiful and impactful.