What Is Human?

The Latin word existere means to stand out, and is where the English language derives its words existence, and existential. Existentialism is a philosophical theory that deals with the question of what it is in life that comprises human existence. In other words, it attempts to explain what differentiates human existence from the existence other organisms or inanimate objects. There are some who hold the opinion that “it is very difficult … to assign to existentialism any doctrinal content” (Copeleston 19). However, absurdity is what I believe to be the defining component of existentialism.

The idea of absurdity is that the world contains no meaning except that which an individual gives to it. This means is that anything can happen to anyone at any given moment in time, and whether or not the occurrence of something is considered “good” or “bad” is entirely dependent upon how an individual perceives the situation in question. A simple example of this would be the commonplace phrase “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” In this case, the one man perceives the item as something which is completely useless, while the other man perceives the item as something which has an extremely practical application.

Also, take into account this hypothetical situation. After a day of recreation at the park, a man has to drive though a fairly powerful storm. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind topples over by a strong wind, which crushes back seat of the vehicle, killing everyone except for the man. Because of the absurdity which characterizes human life, the man might perceive this situation as a tragic turn of events because his family was killed. However, another possibility is that he might perceive it as a blessing because he was fortunate enough to avoid being crushed to death.

Any given object, idea, action, or situation has no meaning except that which is given to it by one’s own perception. In a nutshell, this is what absurdity is from a philosophical standpoint. It...