Absurdism
A philosophical position holding that human beings inevitably seek meaning, purpose, and order in a universe that supplies none. Most closely associated with Albert Camus, absurdism distinguishes itself from nihilism (which denies that meaning is worth seeking) and from existentialism (which often grounds meaning in individual choice). Camus's response in The Myth of Sisyphus is that one should neither commit suicide nor make a "leap of faith" into religion or ideology, but live in lucid revolt against the absurd. The absurd also became the central preoccupation of mid-century drama, where playwrights like Beckett and Ionesco staged the condition rather than arguing for it.