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Ieva Pečiulytė

If You Are Going Through An Existential Crisis, These 75 Philosophical Memes Might Be Relatable

Nietzsche Socrates

If you’ve ever pondered the universe at 2 a.m. or spiraled into a debate with yourself about free will while the number of unread emails in your inbox grows to three figures, you’ve probably spent some time philosophizing about life. So it should be easy enough to then also reach the conclusion that philosophy, much like everything else, can be made into a meme.

We’ve gathered some of the best (or what we think are the best, who is really to say) posts from this group dedicated to hilarious and relatable philosophy memes. So get comfortable as you ponder the meaning of life, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your thoughts and ideas in the comments down below.

#1 Philomena Cunk On Philosophy

#2 Most Ambitious Crossover Event... Etc

#3 How I Annoy My Friends

Philosophy memes have become an entire genre of internet humor that turns thousands of years of heavy intellectual thought into digestible jokes that make you question your existence while you're supposed to be working. Classical philosophers may have been sulking loners lost in their existential musings, but modern philosophers and philosophy students were born in the age of the Internet, the time when nothing makes sense and everything can be turned into a meme.

The result is a peculiar brand of comedy where Nietzsche's existential dread meets modern anxiety about student loans and you get a Drake meme comparing optimistic nihilism to pessimistic nihilism.

#4 We In It Together!

#5 The First Philosopher

#6 Modern vs. Traditional Philosophy

Philosophy memes take heavyweight ideas and twist them into quick laughs, condensing centuries of thought into bite-sized images that turn Plato's cave into a late-night talk show set. You'll find metaphysics memes arguing whether a dropped pen truly exists and epistemology memes questioning how you know you actually read the caption. The beauty of philosophy memes is that they make ancient wisdom feel accessible without dumbing it down too much, though your actual philosophy professor might disagree about the nuance being lost when you reduce Kant's categorical imperative to a two-panel comic.

#7 Please, Guys, I Don't Want To Feel Like I'm The Only One

#8 The Genealogy Of Morals (Summarized)

#9

The sense of self-awareness translated through memes shares striking similarities to philosopher Albert Camus' notion of absurdism, which is probably the most meta thing about the whole phenomenon. Generation Z has essentially weaponized existential dread and repackaged it as entertainment, using memes that remark things like "I may look fly but I want to die" to cope with an uncertain future. Perhaps the poignancy of meme humor lies in that Gen Z has no other choice but to embrace the absurdity of the future, using the tool they know best to lighten the weight with a little levity.

#10 There's No Way Out Of It

#11 I See You, Scroller

#12 Ship Of Thesaurus

Now let's imagine what meme formats historical philosophers might have enjoyed if they had access to the internet. Socrates would have absolutely crushed it with the "change my mind" format, setting up a table in the Athenian agora with a sign reading "I know that I know nothing, change my mind" and then proceeding to question everyone who approached until they either had an existential crisis or walked away confused. He'd probably also enjoy the "annoying orange" format because annoying people with questions until they reconsidered their entire worldview was literally his whole thing.

#13 Gubberment

#14 Found On Instagram

#15 Fixed For The AI Age

Plato would be all over the "distracted boyfriend" meme, using it to illustrate the allegory of the cave with the boyfriend representing humans, the girlfriend he's ignoring as the real forms, and the other woman he's checking out as the mere shadows on the cave wall. He'd probably also appreciate the "they don't know" party meme, where he's standing in the corner at a party thinking "they don't know about the world of forms" while everyone else is just trying to have a good time.

#16 It Really Be Like That

#17 69

#18 Be A Shame

Descartes would obviously be the king of the "I think therefore I am" meme variations, probably creating hundreds of increasingly absurd versions like "I meme therefore I am" or "I overthink therefore I have anxiety." He'd also love the "is this a pigeon" meme for its ability to question the nature of perception and reality, using it to ask "is this a reliable sensory experience" while pointing at literally anything.

#19

#20 The Ultimate Test Of A Self Governing People

#21 Gettier It?

Nietzsche would definitely be into edgy meme culture and would probably run one of those accounts that posts things at 3am that make you question everything. The "this is fine" dog sitting in a burning room would be peak Nietzsche energy, perfectly capturing his philosophy that we should embrace suffering and create our own meaning despite the chaos.

#22 It Do Be Like That

#23 Socrates Banned From Twitter

#24 Probably?

Kant would probably be too busy trying to create the perfect categorical imperative for meme-making to actually post anything, writing lengthy treatises about the moral implications of viral content. If he did post, he'd probably use the "expanding brain" meme to illustrate different levels of moral reasoning, starting with "acting morally because you'll get in trouble" and ending with "acting morally because it's your duty according to universal law."

#25 German Idealism Hasn't Been Ideal

#26 Screams In Broke

#27 Bet The Thief Was Into Hegel

Diogenes would be the ultimate troll, living in a barrel and posting cynical hot takes about society while philosophers debated him in the comments. He'd probably just post pictures of himself doing increasingly absurd things to mock social conventions, basically inventing performance art memes centuries before the internet existed. The "reject modernity, embrace tradition" meme would be his except it would say "reject civilization, live in a barrel."

#28 Real

#29 Nihilism

#30 Ethics Debate

The fact that we can imagine these scenarios says something profound about how memes have become a universal language for expressing complex ideas. Philosophy memes work because they take concepts that once required years of study to grasp and make them immediately relatable through humor, proving that maybe the best way to get people interested in life's big questions is to make them laugh first and think second.