The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt [Paperback]

Camus examines the reasons for rebellion - socio-economic and political injustices could no longer be explained by reference to God's will. If such injustices pertain, then how can God be "just"? Therefore does God exist? Camus then goes on to examine, essentially, what a mess has been created by the attempts to replace deism with some other form of over-arching belief: from the exaltation of rationalism in the French Revolution, the primacy of the law, romantic Socialism, Communism, and Fascism. Presciently, he also refers to the limitations of economic materialism. None of these have succeeded in removing injustices, many of them justify repression by promising a just future which can in reality never be attained.

This is an interesting, accessible book. Camus's ultimate conclusions are worth a close read in that they affirm the value of life in its own terms and serve as a wake-up call to what is and is not really achievable for humanity as a whole.

G Rodgers

This is in my opinion the crux of The Rebel as Camus examines the history of religous (metaphysical) and social rebellion. From the Marquis De Sade and Neitzche in the former to the French Revolution and USSR in the later.

Camus seems to have started from a point of being at a loss to explain the seeming contradictions in apparently well meaning revolution's that dole out (or promise freedom over here) and practice tyranny over there. Camus shows the depth and originality of his thinking by showing that these contradictions can be seen as the logical conclusions to total obediance to the doctrines of Marx, Hegel and Rosseau amoungst others ( these contradictions are found in the works themselves of Marx et al as these thinkers have been 'slaves' to their own logic which can be seen as analagous to Weber's notion of 'over-rationalism' and the 'iron cage' ). The result is a wise and profound analysys of social rebellion and a proscription for future reform as well as presenting a kind of 'eudaimon' for the contemporary existentialist.