Albert Camus: From the Absurd to Revolt

254 Pages·2008·2.87 MB·English

by  John Foley

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ALBERT CAMUS
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ALBERT CAMUS
FROM THE ABSURD TO REVOLT
John Foley
ACUMEN
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© John Foley 2008
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2008 by Acumen
Acumen Publishing Limited
Stocksfield Hall
Stocksfield
NE43 7TN
www.acumenpublishing.co.uk
ISBN 978-1-84465-140-5 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-84465-141-2 (paperback)
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Typeset by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong.
Printed and bound by Biddles Limited, King’s Lynn.
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For my mother and for Farah
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It may be that the ideal of freedom to choose ends without claiming eternal validity
for them, and the pluralism of values connected with this, is only the late fruit of our
declining capitalist civilization: an ideal which remote ages and primitive societies
have not recognized, and one which posterity will regard with curiosity, even sympa-
thy, but little comprehension. This may be so; but no sceptical conclusions seem to
me to follow. Principles are not less sacred because their duration cannot be guaran-
teed. Indeed, the very desire for guarantees that our values are eternal and secure in
some objective heaven is perhaps only a craving for the certainties of childhood or
the absolute values of our primitive past. “To realise the relative validity of one’s con-
victions,” said an admirable writer of our time, “and yet stand for them unflinchingly,
is what distinguishes a civilised man from a barbarian.” To demand more than this is
perhaps a deep and incurable metaphysical need; but to allow it to determine one’s
practice is a symptom of an equally deep, and more dangerous, moral and political
immaturity.
Isaiah Berlin, “Two Concepts of Liberty” (1958)
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements xi
Notes on the text and abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
1 The absurd 5
The Myth of Sisyphus 5
The Outsider 14
Caligula 22
Between nihilism and hope 26
2 Camus and Combat 29
Camusian rebellion and political engagement 29
Letters to a German Friend 30
Camus and Combat 33
“Neither Victims nor Executioners” 38
The Plague 50
3 The Rebel 55
Introduction 55
Metaphysical rebellion 58
Historical rebellion 60
Hegel 63