Camus was born inFrench Algeria topied-noir parents. He spent his childhood in a poor neighbourhood and later studied philosophy at theUniversity of Algiers. He was in Paris when theGermans invaded France during World War II in 1940. Camus tried to flee but finally joined theFrench Resistance where he served as editor-in-chief atCombat, an outlawed newspaper. After the war, he was a celebrity figure and gave many lectures around the world. He married twice but had many extramarital affairs. Camus was politically active; he was part ofthe left that opposedJoseph Stalin and theSoviet Union because of theirtotalitarianism. Camus was amoralist and leaned towardsanarcho-syndicalism. He was part of many organisations seekingEuropean integration. During theAlgerian War (1954–1962), he kept a neutral stance, advocating a multicultural and pluralistic Algeria, a position that was rejected by most parties.
Philosophically, Camus's views contributed to the rise of the philosophy known asabsurdism. Some consider Camus's work to show him to be anexistentialist, even though he himself firmly rejected the term throughout his lifetime.
Albert Camus was born on 7 November 1913 in a working-class neighbourhood in Mondovi (present-dayDréan), inFrench Algeria. His mother, Catherine Hélène Camus (née Sintès), was French withBalearic Spanish ancestry. She was deaf and illiterate.[4] He never knew his father, Lucien Camus, a poor French agricultural worker killed in action while serving with aZouave regiment in October 1914, duringWorld War I. Camus, his mother, and other relatives lived without many basic material possessions during his childhood in theBelcourt section ofAlgiers. Camus was a second-generation French inhabitant of Algeria, which was a French territory from 1830 until 1962. His paternal grandfather, along with many others of his generation, had moved to Algeria for a better life during the first decades of the 19th century. Hence, he was called apied-noir – a slang term for people of French and other European descent born in Algeria. His identity and poor background had a substantial effect on his later life.[5] Nevertheless, Camus was a French citizen and enjoyed more rights thanArab andBerber Algerians underindigénat.[6] During his childhood, he developed a love forfootball andswimming.[7]
Under the influence of his teacher Louis Germain, Camus gained a scholarship in 1924 to continue his studies at a prestigiouslyceum (secondary school) near Algiers.[8] Germain immediately noticed his lively intelligence and his desire to learn. In middle school, he gave Camus free lessons to prepare him for the 1924 scholarship competition – despite the fact that his grandmother had a plan for him to be a manual worker so that he could immediately contribute to the maintenance of the family. Camus maintained great gratitude and affection towards Louis Germain throughout his life and he dedicated his speech for accepting the Nobel Prize to Germain. Having received the news of the awarding of the prize, he wrote:
But when I heard the news, my first thought, after my mother, was of you. Without you, without the affectionate hand you extended to the small poor child that I was, without your teaching and example, none of all this would have happened.[9]
In a letter dated 30 April 1959, Germain lovingly reciprocated the warm feelings towards his former pupil, calling him "my little Camus".[10][11]
Camus played asgoalkeeper for theRacing Universitaire d'Alger junior team from 1928 to 1930.[12] The sense of team spirit, fraternity, and common purpose appealed to him enormously.[13] In match reports, he was often praised for playing with passion and courage. Any football ambitions, however, disappeared when he contracted tuberculosis.[12] Camus later drew parallels between football, human existence, morality, and personal identity. For him, the simplistic morality of football contradicted the complicated morality imposed by authorities such as the state and church.[12]
In 1930, at the age of 17, Camus was diagnosed withtuberculosis.[7] Because it is a transmitted disease, he moved out of his home and stayed with his uncle Gustave Acault, a butcher, who influenced the young Camus. It was at that time he turned to philosophy, with the mentoring of his philosophy teacherJean Grenier. He was impressed byancient Greek philosophers andFriedrich Nietzsche.[7] During that time, he was only able to study part time. To earn money, he took odd jobs, including as a private tutor, car parts clerk, and assistant at the Meteorological Institute.[14]
In 1934, Camus was in a relationship with Simone Hié.[17] Simone had an addiction tomorphine, a drug she used to ease her menstrual pains. His uncle Gustave did not approve of the relationship, but Camus married Hié to help her fight the addiction. He subsequently discovered she was in a relationship with her doctor at the same time and the couple later divorced.[14]
Camus joined theFrench Communist Party (PCF) in early 1935. He saw it as a way to "fight inequalities between Europeans and 'natives' in Algeria", even though he was not aMarxist. He explained: "We might see communism as a springboard and asceticism that prepares the ground for more spiritual activities." Camus left the PCF a year later.[18] In 1936, the independence-mindedAlgerian Communist Party (PCA) was founded, and Camus joined it after his mentor Grenier advised him to do so. Camus's main role within the PCA was to organise theThéâtre du Travail ('Workers' Theatre'). Camus was also close to theParti du Peuple Algérien (Algerian People's Party [PPA]), which was a moderate anti-colonialist/nationalist party. As tensions in theinterwar period escalated, theStalinist PCA and PPA broke ties. Camus was expelled from the PCA for refusing to toe the party line. This series of events sharpened his belief in human dignity. Camus's mistrust of bureaucracies that aimed for efficiency instead of justice grew. He continued his involvement with theatre and renamed his groupThéâtre de l'Equipe ('Theatre of the Team'). Some of his scripts were the basis for his later novels.[19]
In 1938, Camus began working for the leftist newspaperAlger républicain (founded byPascal Pia), as he had strong anti-fascist feelings, and the rise of fascist regimes in Europe was worrying him. By then, Camus had also developed strong feelings against authoritariancolonialism as he witnessed the harsh treatment of theArabs and Berbers by French authorities.Alger républicain was banned in 1940 and Camus flew to Paris to take a new job atParis-Soir as layout editor. In Paris, he almost completed his "first cycle" of works dealing with the absurd and the meaningless: the novelL'Étranger (The Outsider [UK] orThe Stranger [US]), the philosophical essayLe Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus), and the playCaligula. Each cycle consisted of a novel, an essay, and a theatrical play.[20]
World War II, Resistance andCombat
Soon after Camus moved to Paris, the outbreak ofWorld War II began to affect France. Camus volunteered to join the army but was not accepted because he had once had tuberculosis. As the Germans were marching towards Paris, Camus fled. He was laid off fromParis-Soir and ended up inLyon, where he married pianist and mathematicianFrancine Faure on 3 December 1940.[21] Camus and Faure moved back to Algeria (Oran), where he taught in primary schools.[22] Because of his tuberculosis, he moved to the French Alps on medical advice. There he began writing his second cycle of works, this time dealing with revolt – a novel,La Peste (The Plague), and a play,Le Malentendu (The Misunderstanding). By 1943 he was known because of his earlier work. He returned to Paris, where he met and became friends withJean-Paul Sartre. He also became part of a circle of intellectuals, which includedSimone de Beauvoir andAndré Breton. Among them was the actressMaría Casares, who later had an affair with Camus.[23]
Camus took an active role in the underground resistance movement against the Germans during theFrench Occupation. Upon his arrival in Paris, he started working as a journalist and editor of the banned newspaperCombat. Camus used a pseudonym for hisCombat articles and used false ID cards to avoid being captured. He continued writing for the paper after the liberation of France,[24] composing almost daily editorials under his real name.[25] During that period he composed fourLettres à un Ami Allemand ('Letters to a German Friend'), explaining why resistance was necessary.[26]
After the War, Camus lived in Paris with Faure, who gave birth to twins, Catherine and Jean, in 1945.[27] Camus was now a celebrated writer known for his role in the Resistance. He gave lectures at various universities in the United States and Latin America during two separate trips. He also visited Algeria once more, only to leave disappointed by the continued oppressive colonial policies, which he had warned about many times. During this period he completed the second cycle of his work, with the bookL'Homme révolté (The Rebel). Camus attackedtotalitarian communism while advocatinglibertarian socialism andanarcho-syndicalism.[28] Upsetting many of his colleagues and contemporaries in France with its rejection ofcommunism, the book brought about the final split between Camus and Sartre. His relations with the Marxist Left deteriorated further during theAlgerian War.[29]
Camus was a strong supporter ofEuropean integration in various marginal organisations working towards that end.[30] In 1944, he founded theComité français pour la féderation européenne ('French Committee for the European Federation' [CFFE]), declaring that Europe "can only evolve along the path of economic progress, democracy, and peace if the nation-states become a federation."[30] In 1947–48, he founded theGroupes de Liaison Internationale (GLI), a trade union movement in the context of revolutionarysyndicalism (syndicalisme révolutionnaire).[31] His main aim was to express the positive side ofsurrealism and existentialism, rejecting the negativity and thenihilism of André Breton. Camus also raised his voice against theSoviet invasion of Hungary and the totalitarian tendencies ofFranco's regime in Spain.[30]
Camus had numerous affairs, particularly an irregular and eventually public affair with the Spanish-born actressMaría Casares, with whom he had extensive correspondence.[32] Faure did not take this affair lightly. She had a mental breakdown and needed hospitalisation in the early 1950s. Camus, who felt guilty, withdrew from public life and was slightly depressed for some time.[33]
In 1957, Camus received the news that he was to be awarded theNobel Prize in Literature. This came as a shock to him; he anticipatedAndré Malraux would win the award. At age 44, he was the second-youngest recipient of the prize, afterRudyard Kipling, who was 41. After this he began working on his autobiographyLe Premier Homme (The First Man) in an attempt to examine "moral learning". He also turned to the theatre once more.[34] Financed by the money he received with his Nobel Prize, he adapted and directed for the stage Dostoyevsky's novelDemons. The play opened in January 1959 at theAntoine Theatre in Paris and was a critical success.[35]
During these years, he published posthumously the works of the philosopherSimone Weil, in the series "Espoir" ('Hope') which he had founded forÉditions Gallimard. Weil had great influence on his philosophy,[36][37] since he saw her writings as an "antidote" tonihilism.[38][39] Camus described her as "the only great spirit of our times".[40]
Death
Albert Camus's gravestoneThe bronze plaque on the monument to Camus in the town ofVilleblevin, France. It reads: "From the General Council of the Yonne Department, in homage to the writer Albert Camus whose remains lay in vigil at theVilleblevin town hall on the night of 4 to 5 January 1960"The monument to Camus built inVilleblevin, where he died in a car crash on 4 January 1960
Camus died on 4 January 1960 at the age of 46, in a car accident nearSens, inLe Grand Fossard in the small town ofVilleblevin. He had spent the New Year's holiday of 1960 at his house inLourmarin,Vaucluse with his family and his publisherMichel Gallimard ofÉditions Gallimard, along withGallimard's wife,Janine, and daughter,Anne. Camus's wife and children went back to Paris by train on 2 January, but Camus decided to return inGallimard's luxuriousFacel Vega FV2. The car crashed into aplane tree on a long straight stretch of theRoute nationale 5 (now theRN 6 or D606). Camus, who was in the passenger seat, died instantly, whileGallimard died five days later.Janine andAnne Gallimard were not injured.[41]
144 pages of a handwritten manuscript entitledLe premier Homme ('The First Man') were found in the wreckage. Camus had predicted that this unfinished novel based on his childhood in Algeria would be his finest work.[27] Camus was buried in theLourmarin cemetery,Vaucluse, France, where he had lived.[42] Jean-Paul Sartre read a eulogy, paying tribute to Camus's heroic "stubborn humanism".[43]William Faulkner wrote his obituary, saying, "When the door shut for him he had already written on this side of it that which every artist who also carries through life with him that one same foreknowledge and hatred of death is hoping to do: I was here."[44]
Camus's first publication was a play calledRévolte dans les Asturies (Revolt in the Asturias), written with three friends in May 1936. The subject was the1934 revolt by Spanish miners that was brutally suppressed by the Spanish government, resulting in 1,500 to 2,000 deaths. In May 1937 he wrote his first book,L'Envers et l'Endroit (Betwixt and Between, also translated asThe Wrong Side and the Right Side). Both were published byEdmond Charlot's small publishing house.[45]
Camus separated his work into three cycles. Each cycle consisted of a novel, an essay, and a play. The first was the cycle of the absurd consisting ofL'Étranger,Le Mythe de Sysiphe, andCaligula. The second was the cycle of the revolt which includedLa Peste (The Plague),L'Homme révolté (The Rebel), andLes Justes (The Just Assassins). The third, the cycle of the love, consisted ofNemesis. Each cycle was an examination of a theme with the use of a pagan myth and including biblical motifs.[46]
The books in the first cycle were published between 1942 and 1944, but the theme was conceived earlier, at least as far back as 1936.[47] With this cycle, Camus aimed to pose a question on thehuman condition, discuss the world as an absurd place, and warn humanity of the consequences of totalitarianism.[48]
Camus began his work on the second cycle while he was in Algeria, in the last months of 1942, just as the Germans were reaching North Africa.[49] In the second cycle, Camus usedPrometheus, who is depicted as a revolutionary humanist, to highlight the nuances between revolution and rebellion. He analyses various aspects of rebellion, its metaphysics, and its connection to politics, and then examines it under the lens of modernity,historicity, and the absence of a God.[50]
After receiving the Nobel Prize, Camus gathered, clarified, and published his pacifist leaning views atActuelles III: Chronique algérienne 1939–1958 (Algerian Chronicles). He then decided to distance himself from the Algerian War as he found the mental burden too heavy. He turned to theatre and the third cycle which was about love and the goddessNemesis, the Greek and Roman goddess of Revenge.[34]
Two of Camus's works were published posthumously. The first entitledLa mort heureuse (A Happy Death) (1971) is a novel that was written between 1936 and 1938. It features a character named Patrice Mersault, comparable toThe Stranger's Meursault. There is scholarly debate about the relationship between the two books. The second was an unfinished novel,Le Premier homme (The First Man, published in 1994), which Camus was writing before he died. It was an autobiographical work about his childhood in Algeria and its publication in 1994 sparked a widespread reconsideration of Camus's allegedly unrepentant colonialism.[51]
Works of Camus by genre and cycle,according to Matthew Sharpe[52]
Camus was amoralist; he claimed morality should guide politics. While he did not deny that morals change over time, he rejected the classical Marxist view that historical material relations define morality.[53]
Camus was also strongly critical ofMarxism–Leninism, which he consideredtotalitarian, especially in the case of the Soviet Union. Camus rebuked those sympathetic to the Soviet model and their "decision to call total servitude freedom".[54] A proponent oflibertarian socialism, he stated that the Soviet Union was not socialist and the United States was not liberal.[55] His critique of the Soviet Union caused him to clash with others on the political left, most notably with his on-again/off-again friend Jean-Paul Sartre.[53]
Active in theFrench Resistance to the Nazi occupation of France during World War II, Camus wrote for and edited the Resistance journalCombat. Of theFrench collaboration with the German occupiers, he wrote: "Now the only moral value is courage, which is useful here for judging the puppets and chatterboxes who pretend to speak in the name of the people."[56] After France's liberation, Camus remarked: "This country does not need aTalleyrand, but aSaint-Just."[57] The reality of thepostwar tribunals soon changed his mind: Camus publicly reversed himself and became a lifelong opponent of capital punishment.[57]
Camus hadanarchist sympathies, which intensified in the 1950s, when he came to believe that the Soviet model was morally bankrupt.[58] Camus was firmly against any kind of exploitation, authority, or property, as well as the State and centralization.[59] However, he opposed revolution, separating therebel from therevolutionary and believing that the belief in "absolute truth", most often assuming the guise of history or reason, inspires the revolutionary and leads to tragic results.[60] He believed that rebellion is spurred by our outrage over the world's lack of transcendent significance, while political rebellion is our response to attacks against the dignity and autonomy of the individual.[60] Camus opposedpolitical violence, tolerating it only in rare and very narrowly defined instances, as well asrevolutionary terror, which he accused of sacrificing innocent lives on the altar of history.[61]
The anarchistAndré Prudhommeaux first introduced him at a meeting of theCercle des Étudiants Anarchistes ('Anarchist Student Circle') in 1948 as a sympathiser familiar with anarchist thought. Camus wrote for anarchist publications such asLe Libertaire ('The Libertarian'),La Révolution prolétarienne ('The Proletarian Revolution'), andSolidaridad Obrera ('Workers' Solidarity'), the organ of the anarcho-syndicalistConfederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT, 'National Confederation of Labor').[64]
Camus kept a neutral stance during theAlgerian Revolution (1954–1962). While he was against the violence of theNational Liberation Front (FLN), he acknowledged the injustice and brutalities imposed by colonialist France. He was supportive ofPierre Mendès France'sUnified Socialist Party (PSU) and its approach to the crisis; Mendès France advocated for reconciliation. Camus also supported a like-minded Algerian militant,Aziz Kessous. Camus traveled to Algeria to negotiate a truce between the two belligerents but was met with distrust by all parties.[65] In one often-misquoted incident, Camus confronted an Algerian critic during his 1957 Nobel Prize acceptance speech in Stockholm, rejecting the false equivalence of justice with revolutionary terrorism: "People are now planting bombs in the tramways of Algiers. My mother might be on one of those tramways. If that is justice, then I prefer my mother."[66][67] Critics have labelled the response as reactionary and a result of a colonialist attitude.[68]
Camus was sharply critical of theproliferation of nuclear weapons and thebombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[69] In the 1950s, Camus devoted his efforts to human rights. In 1952, he resigned from his work forUNESCO when the UN accepted Spain, under the leadership of thecaudillo GeneralFrancisco Franco, as a member.[33] Camus maintained his pacifism and resisted capital punishment anywhere in the world. He wrote an essay against capital punishment in collaboration withArthur Koestler, the writer, intellectual, and founder of the League Against Capital Punishment, entitledRéflexions sur la peine capitale ('Reflections on Capital Punishment'), published byCalmann-Levy in 1957.[70]
Along withAlbert Einstein, Camus was one of the sponsors of thePeoples' World Convention (PWC), also known as Peoples' World Constituent Assembly (PWCA), which took place between 1950 and 1951 at Palais Electoral inGeneva, Switzerland.[71][72]
Role in Algeria
Administrative organization ofFrench Algeria between 1905 and 1955
Born in Algeria to French parents, Camus was familiar with theinstitutional racism of France against Arabs and Berbers, but he was not part of a rich elite. He lived in very poor conditions as a child, but was a citizen of France and as such was entitled to citizens' rights; members of the country's Arab and Berber majority were not.[73]
Camus was a vocal advocate of the "new Mediterranean Culture". This was his vision of embracing the multi-ethnicity of the Algerian people, in opposition to "Latinité", a popular pro-fascist andantisemitic ideology among otherpieds-noirs – French or Europeans born in Algeria. For Camus, this vision encapsulated the Hellenic humanism which survived among ordinary people around the Mediterranean Sea.[74] His 1938 address on "The New Mediterranean Culture" represents Camus's most systematic statement of his views at this time. Camus also supported theBlum–Viollette proposal to grant Algerians fullFrench citizenship in a manifesto with arguments defending this assimilative proposal on radical egalitarian grounds.[75] In 1939, Camus wrote a stinging series of articles for theAlger républicain on the atrocious living conditions of the inhabitants of theKabylie highlands. He advocated for economic, educational, and political reforms as a matter of emergency.[76]
In 1945, following theSétif and Guelma massacre after Arabs revolted against French mistreatment, Camus was one of only a few mainland journalists to visit the colony. He wrote a series of articles reporting on conditions and advocating for French reforms and concessions to the demands of the Algerian people.[77]
When the Algerian War began in 1954, Camus was confronted with a moral dilemma. He identified with thepieds-noirs such as his own parents and defended the French government's actions against the revolt. He argued the Algerian uprising was an integral part of the "newArab imperialism" led by Egypt and an "anti-Western" offensive orchestrated by Russia to "encircle Europe" and "isolate the United States".[78] Although favoring greater Algerianautonomy or even federation, though not full-scale independence, he believed thepieds-noirs and Arabs could co-exist. During the war, he advocated a civil truce that would spare the civilians. It was rejected by both sides, who regarded it as foolish. Behind the scenes, he began working for imprisoned Algerians who faced the death penalty.[79] His position drew much criticism from the left and later postcolonial literary critics, such asEdward Said, who were opposed to European imperialism and charged that Camus's novels and short stories are plagued with colonial depictions – or conscious erasures – of Algeria's Arab population.[80] In their eyes, Camus was no longer the defender of the oppressed.[81] Camus once said that the troubles in Algeria "affected him as others feel pain in their lungs".[82]
Philosophy
Existentialism
Even though Camus is mostly connected toabsurdism,[83] he is routinely categorized as anexistentialist, a term he rejected on several occasions.[84]
Camus himself said his philosophical origins lay in ancient Greek philosophy, Nietzsche, and 17th-century moralists, whereas existentialism arose from 19th- and early 20th-century philosophy such asSøren Kierkegaard,Karl Jaspers, andMartin Heidegger.[85] He also said his work,The Myth of Sisyphus, was a criticism of various aspects of existentialism.[86] Camus rejected existentialism as a philosophy, but his critique was mostly focused onSartrean existentialism and – though to a lesser extent – on religious existentialism. He thought that the importance of history held by Marx and Sartre was incompatible with his belief in human freedom.[87]David Sherman and others also suggest the rivalry between Sartre and Camus also played a part in his rejection of existentialism.[88] David Simpson argues further that his humanism and belief in human nature set him apart from the existentialist doctrine thatexistence precedes essence.[89]
On the other hand, Camus focused most of his philosophy around existential questions. The absurdity of life and that it inevitably ends in death is highlighted in his acts. His belief was that the absurd – life being void of meaning, or man's inability to know that meaning if it were to exist – was something that man should embrace. His opposition to Christianity and his commitment to individual moral freedom and responsibility are only a few of the similarities with other existential writers.[90] Camus addressed one of the fundamental questions of existentialism: the problem of suicide. He wrote: "There is only one really serious philosophical question, and that is suicide."[91]Camus viewed the question of suicide as arising naturally as a solution to the absurdity of life.[53]
Absurdism
Many existentialist writers have addressed the Absurd, each with their own interpretation of what it is and what makes it important. Kierkegaard suggests that the absurdity of religious truths prevents people from reaching God rationally.[92] Sartre recognizes the absurdity of individual experience. Camus's thoughts on the Absurd begin with his first cycle of books and the literary essayThe Myth of Sisyphus, his major work on the subject. In 1942, he published the story of a man living an absurd life inThe Stranger. He also wrotea play about the Roman emperorCaligula, pursuing an absurd logic, which was not performed until 1945. His early thoughts appeared in his first collection of essays,Betwixt and Between, in 1937. Absurd themes were expressed with more sophistication in his second collection of essays,Noces (Nuptials) in 1938. In these essays, Camus reflects on the experience of the Absurd.[93] Aspects of the notion of the Absurd can also be found inThe Plague.[94]
A stele made inTipaza in 1961 by the French painter Louis Bénist, on which is engraved an extract fromNuptials: "Here, I understand the concept of glory: the freedom to love boundlessly."
Camus follows Sartre's definition of the Absurd: "That which is meaningless. Thus man's existence is absurd because his contingency finds no external justification".[92] The Absurd is created because man, who is placed in an unintelligent universe, realises that human values are not founded on a solid external component; as Camus himself explains, the Absurd is the result of the "confrontation between human need and the unreasonable silence of the world".[95] Even though absurdity is inescapable, Camus does not drift towardsnihilism. But the realization of absurdity leads to the question: Why should someone continue to live? Suicide is an option that Camus firmly dismisses as the renunciation of human values and freedom. Rather, he proposes we accept that absurdity is a part of our lives and live with it.[96]
Camus regretted the continued reference to himself as a "philosopher of the absurd". He showed less interest in the Absurd shortly after publishingThe Myth of Sisyphus. To distinguish his ideas, scholars sometimes refer to the Paradox of the Absurd, when referring to "Camus's Absurd".[97]
Revolt
Camus articulated the case for revolting against any kind of oppression, injustice, or whatever disrespects the human condition. He was cautious enough, however, to set the limits on the rebellion.[98]The Rebel explains in detail his thoughts on the issue. There, he builds upon the absurd, described inThe Myth of Sisyphus, but goes further. In the introduction, where he examines the metaphysics of rebellion, he concludes with the phrase "I revolt, therefore we exist" implying the recognition of a common human condition.[99] Camus also delineates the difference between revolution and rebellion and notices that history has shown that the rebel's revolution might easily end up as an oppressive regime; he therefore places importance on the morals accompanying the revolution.[100] Camus poses a crucial question: Is it possible for humans to act in an ethical and meaningful manner in a silent universe? According to him, the answer is yes, as the experience and awareness of the Absurd creates the moral values and also sets the limits of our actions.[101] Camus separates the modern form of rebellion into two modes. First, there is the metaphysical rebellion, which is "the movement by which man protests against his condition and against the whole of creation". The other mode, historical rebellion, is the attempt to materialize the abstract spirit of metaphysical rebellion and change the world. In this attempt, the rebel must balance between the evil of the world and the intrinsic evil which every revolt carries, and not cause any unjustifiable suffering.[102]
Camus's novels and philosophical essays are still influential. After his death, interest in Camus followed the rise – and diminution – of theNew Left. Following thecollapse of the Soviet Union, interest in his alternative road to communism resurfaced.[103] He is remembered for his skeptical humanism and his support for political tolerance, dialogue, and civil rights.[104]
Although Camus has been linked to anti-Soviet communism, reaching as far as anarcho-syndicalism, someneoliberals have tried to associate him with their policies; for instance, the French PresidentNicolas Sarkozy suggested that his remains be moved to thePanthéon, an idea that was criticised by Camus's surviving family and angered many on the Left.[105]
Tributes
InTipasa, Algeria, inside the Roman ruins, facing the sea and Mount Chenoua, astele was erected in 1961 in honor of Albert Camus with this phrase in French extracted from his workNoces à Tipasa: "I understand here what is called glory: the right to love beyond measure" (French:Je comprends ici ce qu'on appelle gloire : le droit d'aimer sans mesure).[106]
The French Post published a stamp with his likeness on 26 June 1967.[107]
Create Dangerously (Essay on Realism and Artistic Creation; lecture at the University of Uppsala in Sweden, 1957)[110]
References
Footnotes
^Schrift, Alan D. (2010)."French Nietzscheanism"(PDF). In Schrift, Alan D. (ed.).Poststructuralism and Critical Theory's Second Generation. The History of Continental Philosophy. Vol. 6. Durham, UK: Acumen. pp. 19–46.ISBN978-1-84465-216-7.
^Sherman 2009, p. 11: Camus's thesis was titled "Rapports de l'hellénisme et du christianisme à travers les oeuvres de Plotin et de saint Augustin" ('Relationship of Greek and Christian Thought in Plotinus and St. Augustine') for hisdiplôme d'études supérieures (roughly equivalent to anMA thesis).
^"You cannot give coherence to murder if you refuse it to suicide. A spirit penetrated by the idea of the absurd undoubtedly admits the murder of fatality, but would not be able to accept the murder of reasoning. In comparison, murder and suicide are one and the same thing, which must be taken or left together."L'Homme revolté [The Rebel] (in French). Paris: Gallimard. 1951. p. 17.
Carroll, Sean B. (2013).Brave Genius: A Scientist, a Philosopher, and Their Daring Adventures from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize. New York: Crown.ISBN978-0-307-95234-9.
Dunwoodie, Peter (1993). "Albert Camus and the Anarchist Alternative".Australian Journal of French Studies.30 (1). Liverpool University Press:84–104.doi:10.3828/ajfs.30.1.84.ISSN0004-9468.
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