The term, “The Theatre of the Absurd” originates from Martin Esslin. The meaning of the term can be traced back in 1920 and 1930s to explain the events that were taking place to ascertain the impermanency of man and all his valuables. Esslin who is a theater critic got the term in 1942, from an essay written by Camus titled “Myth of Sisyphus. He looks at a human life as absurd and the people think they are in control while they are meaningless which he denotes from various absurd plays of the time. The meaning was further evidenced in the horrors and destruction of man and property that took place in the Second World War (Matthews, Platt, & Noble, 2010). After the nuclear bombing in 1945, human beings live in uncertainties of what is likely to happen to them. The purpose of the theater is to remind people of East and West Europe to go back to religious beliefs and myths through exposing him to conditions that scare him yet he has no control over. It is intended make people realize they are meaningless and powerless without God.
Paradigm Shift is defined as moving from one stage to another. Thomas Kuhn proposed the concept in his article The Structure of Scientific revolution in the year 1962. When a change comes in, it replaces the previous behavior in an intellectual way such that the individual do not realize he is changing. However, various factors have to be there to facilitate change (Matthews, Platt, & Noble, 2010). For example, in the field of agriculture, various changes have taken place. Initially people used to hunt while latter on, mechanization has taken the lead. The only fact in the world is change although many a time’s people are not willing to welcome change. In the business field, there have been so many changes. Things are introduced as simple tools but latter on are developed to complex mechanisms.
Ubermenschen is an ideology proposed by a German philosopher named Friedrich Nietzsche in 1883. The concept tends to relate the humans with super-human ability. Generally, the term has a direct meaning of the ‘above human’. Friedrich Nietzsche however introduced the concept with a wide range of ideas, which he presented in his book, ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’. He presents the idea of the human, having power to live in two different forms (Matthews, Platt, & Noble, 2010). For example, in the context of religion, Christians, according to Nietzsche, have changed their values, from what they had before. This is because of defining Christianity with science, rather than the knowledge of God and the concept of moral values, which were the original definitions.
Reference List
Matthews, R., Platt, D., & Noble, T. (2010). The Western Humanities. (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Humanities.