:: COMPARE ::
The short answer
Nihilism concludes that values have no foundation at all. Absurdism concludes that nothing warrants appeal beyond this life — and therefore that revolt, solidarity and lucid attention are the only honest responses. Camus built the second specifically by rejecting the first, which makes their common conflation a real error rather than a nuance.
Side by side
| Aspect | Absurdism | Nihilism |
|---|---|---|
| Absurdity is in | The relation | The world |
| Response | Revolt, act | Withdraw — or destroy |
| Solidarity | Required | Unwarranted |
| Camus | Wrote it | Rejected it |
What each one means
Absurdism is the philosophical and literary position that meaning is something we demand and the universe does not supply. Camus, its best-known voice, added that the right response is to keep living anyway, lucidly. Lowercase, the word can also just mean absurdity, or the absurdist strand in theatre and fiction.
Full definition of Absurdism →Nihilism is the position that some whole domain we take seriously — morality, knowledge, or meaning — has no real foundation at all.
Full definition of Nihilism →