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About Me
Absurd Being is the website of Nathan Hohipuha, a New Zealander living and teaching English at a university in South Korea.
Those of you with sharp eyes may have noticed something odd in the picture above. The guy eating his glasses, between Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Camus is actually me. Hi. Really difficult to get all five of us together like that by the way...
What am I Currently Working On?
PHILOSOPHY
With the last video in my Derrida series finished and uploaded, it is time to think about a new project. I have decided to return to a pair of speculative realists I planned to do a (short) series on about a year ago, but never got around to: Quentin Meillassoux and Ray Brassier. I'll probably take 2-3 weeks to get my thoughts in order (and re-read their books) before I get into this.
As far as the research for the book is going, it's more of the same. I finished James Ladyman's Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalized and while I can't agree with everything he says, there were things I liked. I'm currently reading Chilean philosopher Roberto Torretti's The Philosophy of Physics.
BOOKS IN PROGRESS
Roberto Torretti - The Philosophy of Physics
Peter Hamilton - The Saints of Salvation
BOOKS JUST FINISHED
I didn't have high hopes for James Ladyman's Every Thing Must Go. Other academic books on metaphysics I have read have tended to be full of hair-splitting, excessively pedantic argumentation that I don't find interesting or illuminating. While the book certainly had its fair share of this, once we got to Ladyman's theory, ontic structural realism (almost 200 pages in!), I was pleased to find that I agreed with Ladyman's core metaphysical premise: instead of thinking in terms of 'things', we should picture the world in terms of patterns, leaving aside fruitless speculation about metaphysical primitives or ultimate substances.
I am not much for short stories, but I've (partially) changed my opinion on this recently, although this newfound interest only extends to SF or philosophically themed short stories. Some of Jorge Luis Borges' stories fit nicely into this category, so I've been indulging a little in him of late. Two stories that stand out for me thus far have been The Approach to al-Mu'tasim and Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.
Last Updated: Sep 01, 2025
Latest
This latest video series brings me to someone I never expected to read, let alone like: Jacques Derrida. The philosophical villain in many people's imaginations, my single piece of advice to you is read him (or at least watch my video series!) before you write him off.
The big news (for me at any rate) is the (self-)publication of my first book, The Philosophy of Reality, which contains my theory about the way phenomenology, ontology, and metaphysics are related. I've written an article about the book, including some excerpts, here, made a video in which I discuss it a little more here, and put it up on Amazon which you can find here.
You've seen my Merleau-Ponty series on his Phenomenolgoy of Perception. In this new series we turn to MP's The Visible and the Invisible, the book he was writing at the time of his death, and the one in which the French philosopher pivots to ontology and introduces the notions of chiasm and flesh.
French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) is one of the most important philosophers of the modern era. His writings, agree or disagree with them, display a tremendous intellect and both a remarkable depth and breadth of thought, straddling disciplines, philosphers, and theories with apparent ease. This video series focuses on his book and doctoral thesis Difference and Repetition.
Watsuji Tetsuro (1889-1960) was a Japanese philosopher whose thought wasn't religious/Buddhist enough to earn him a place in the Kyoto School of Japanese philosophy centred around the ubiquitous Nishida Kitaro. His philosophy engaged with Western thinkers, and he was especially sympathetic to Heidegger's brand of phenomenology. This video series works through his book Rinrigaku.
Edmund Husserl, German philosopher and founder of phenomenology, created the philosophy that has mainly occupied me in my studies. However, his approach to phenomenology completely differed from that of the 'students' who came afterwards. We finally investigate the master himself in this video series on Ideas 1.
What can you expect to find on the Absurd Being site?
Blog: This is an archive of all the articles I have written. From Feb 2018 the article links redirect to my WordPress blog.
Videos: On this page you can find links to all of my YouTube videos. The videos themselves are usually extremely detailed, chapter by chapter breakdowns of difficult existentialist texts. If you've always wanted to tackle Heidegger or Sartre but were intimidated by their mammoth, dense tomes, these videos will keep you on track right to the last page.
Philosophy: This website is first and foremost a site about philosophy. It contains articles explaining/discussing philosophers and their philosophies. For those of you who may have already recognised something vaguely 'philosophical' in the site name, I have a strong existentialist leaning which will be reflected in the content.
Buddhism: Given that Buddhism is the most interesting and least 'religious' religion, I have dedicated a separate page to it.
Atheism: I am a strict atheist and have written quite a bit about Christianity from this perspective. All of my thoughts on Christianity make their way here.
Science: This section primarily reflects my interest in neuroscience, consciousness, and physics.
Novels: I have a keen interest in writing fiction that could probably best be categorised as fantasy/sci-fi. All of my novels have philosophical or religious themes and are primarily intended to stimulate thought in the reader. As I complete various writing endeavours, I will be posting excerpts to this page.
Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) was a French poststructuralist/postmodernist known for his critical analyses of contemporary society and culture, particularly regarding consumerism and technology. Like other philosophers associated with the postmodern movement (Deleuze, Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard, Lacan, etc.), Baudrillard’s thought begins with semiotics and argues that meaning and significance are derived from the way signs, or images, interrelate. He also argued that the attempt to formulate a systematic and comprehensive knowledge of the world ends in illusion...
Think for a moment about some of the beliefs you currently hold. Do you believe in God or are you an atheist (the belief that God doesn’t exist)? Do you believe that one form of government is better than others or that a particular position on the political spectrum is the best? Do you believe that abortion is wrong or that violent offenders should be given the death penalty? Do you believe that a certain genre of music is objectively better than others? From the transcendent and metaphysical to the commonplace and ordinary, our entire lives are structured by the myriad of beliefs we hold. But why have you assented to the particular set of beliefs you have come to possess? This is the question I want to explore in this article...
These days, anyone with even a passing interest in contemporary physics has heard of early 20th century physicist Erwin Schrodinger’s thought experiment involving a cat that is paradoxically both alive and dead. In this article, I will briefly outline the basics of Schrodinger’s notion before looking at an alternative thought experiment proposed by Albert Einstein that I think can be adapted to make Schrodinger’s point even more poignantly. Finally, I will argue that, although Einstein and Schrodinger’s thought experiments are sound, they both fail in their ultimate objective...
I won’t hold it against you if you are wondering what George Berkeley, an 18th century Anglican bishop and idealist philosopher, and quantum mechanics, a modern scientific theory unparalleled in the accuracy of its predictions, are doing side by side in the title of an article. I still won’t hold it against you if the second half of the title doesn’t shed much light on the first half. Hopefully, by the time you finish this article, all of those disparate pieces will slide into place and make perfect sense...
Good faith discussions, as rare as they might be in the real world, you would think would be places where facts matter and where the truth about an issue is both attainable and something that can be agreed upon by two reasonable interlocutors. After all, facts are, by definition, indisputable, and the truth is, by definition, singular. However, we’ve all seen political debates (which admittedly no one would mistake for good faith discussions) where each side seemingly has access to an entire realm of facts alien to the other side, so that rather than a genuine attempt to understand the situation and actually resolve any problems, the two sides end up talking past each other...
Note: All information on this website is the property of Nathan Hohipuha and may not be taken for use without prior consent.
Disclaimer: This site is privately owned and operated. All content represents the personal opinion of the author. In the case of factual or interpretative errors I would gratefully accept suggestions for correction.
Differing opinions on the topics discussed herein would also be received with interest.
Nathan can be contacted at absurdbeing@gmail.com
This latest 
The big news (for me at any rate) is the (self-)publication of my first book, The Philosophy of Reality, which contains my theory about the way phenomenology, ontology, and metaphysics are related. I've written an article about the book, including some excerpts, 
You've seen my Merleau-Ponty series on his Phenomenolgoy of Perception. In this new 
French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) is one of the most important philosophers of the modern era. His writings, agree or disagree with them, display a tremendous intellect and both a remarkable depth and breadth of thought, straddling disciplines, philosphers, and theories with apparent ease. 
Watsuji Tetsuro (1889-1960) was a Japanese philosopher whose thought wasn't religious/Buddhist enough to earn him a place in the Kyoto School of Japanese philosophy centred around the ubiquitous Nishida Kitaro. His philosophy engaged with Western thinkers, and he was especially sympathetic to Heidegger's brand of phenomenology. 
Edmund Husserl, German philosopher and founder of phenomenology, created the philosophy that has mainly occupied me in my studies. However, his approach to phenomenology completely differed from that of the 'students' who came afterwards. We finally investigate the master himself in