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Philosophical exploration of the role of absurd belief in confronting modern nihilism, indicating potential for change.
A reasonable response to the tragedies of the contemporary moment, to what we see and hear daily, is nihilistic numbness. Just as for Søren Kierkegaard the Christian belief in the incarnation is absurd, to affirm this world, to believe in it, is absurd. Gilles Deleuze is not lured by the object of Kierkegaard's belief, but to the movements Kierkegaard's belief enacts, its immanent implications. Deleuze calls us to believe in the world by virtue of the absurd, for it is through this absurd belief that we may actually enact a potentiality that a reasonable response would obscure.
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Elijah Prewitt-Davis (2026) studied this question.
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