The Torn Rebel, Final Essay Camus

CAMUS’ TORN REBEL: (LYRICAL AND) CRITICAL ESSAY ABOUT THE
INNER STRUGGLES OF THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO LIVE AS REBELS
CAMUS’ TORN REBEL
(Lyrical and) Critical Essay about the Inner Struggles of those who
Choose to Live as Rebels.
Émilie Bevers, 3541802
Faculty of Philosophy
PHIL 3306
Dr. D. Ahern
December 8th, 2015

2 CAMUS’ TORN REBEL: (LYRICAL AND) CRITICAL ESSAY ABOUT THE
INNER STRUGGLE OF THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO LIVE AS REBELS
In a cruel, cruel society where ‘our criminals are no longer helpless
children who could plead love as their excuse; on the contrary, they are adults
and they have a perfect alibi: philosophy, which can be used for any purpose-
even for transforming murderers into judges’1, the rebel has to stand up and
say no to what is not right while simultaneously saying yes to an alternative2.
Camus’ essay ‘The Rebel’ (or ‘l’Homme Révolté’) can (very, very roughly) be
summarized as such. But what does a rebel look like? Who are those rebels and
what does one have to do to become one of them? Camus has written more
than three hundred pages about them. Why is it so difficult to explain how and
with what motives the rebel acts? And what is his significance in society? If
Camus promotes rebellion, how do we explain the following quote?
“Thus the rebel can never find peace. He knows what is good and, despite
himself, does evil.”3
The rebel seems to be torn. Torn between doing what he knows is evil
and doing good but knowing the world will not change without him taking
action4. To understand Camus’ work it is important to explain the significance
and meaning of some of his key ideas first. Early on in the book, Camus explains
that to fully understand the motives of rebellion and the way the world works,
1Camus, Albert. The rebel: An essay on man in revolt. Vintage, (2012), 3
3 Camus, Albert. The rebel: An essay on man in revolt. Vintage, (2012), 285

one needs to accept the idea of ‘the absurd’5. What does Camus mean by ‘the
absurd’? What does Camus mean by ‘rebellion’? And how are those two
concepts linked? After having established a clear definition of these key
components of Camus’ essay, we will discuss and take a better look at the inner
struggles the rebel deals with: The struggle between doing what is good and
doing what will make the world better. Finally, we will discuss Camus’ goal in
writing this essay and the significance of his work for society nowadays.
What is The Absurd?
One of the most important and most complicated theories in Camus’
work is the theory of the absurd. The absurd, according to Camus, is the idea
that there is no higher authority dictating you how to act. Life is absurd. You
were born, not to achieve a goal, not to take place into a bigger plan. You were
just born. A random coincidence of events set you on this stunningly beautiful,
fascinating earth that needs to be celebrated. But how can love and revolt be
harmonized?6 Camus struggles with this thought. If life is absurd, how can you
stand up against cruelty? Shouldn’t everything, including murder and child
sacrifice, be permitted in an absurd world? If there is no higher authority, who
or what is preventing you from killing other human being?7
6Camus, Albert. Lyrical and critical essays. Vintage, (2012), 105

One of the characters in Camus’ The Rebel that struggle with this
thought is Ivan Karamazov out of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov8. Ivan
places human innocence above divinity and places God on trial9. He rejects God
as the highest authority for if God places truth above the suffering of children,
truth is not worth such a price.10 Ivan struggles with letting go of God and
meaning in this life: All or Nothing, Everyone or No One.11 Human sacrifice is
one step too close to No One. If we allow the sacrifice of one person to get one
step closer to the truth, we might as well be letting go of all moral rules. But
without values or meaning; what remains?12 Is everything permitted?13
Camus comes up with a solution for this seemingly problematic thought.
He argues the same idea of the ‘absurd’ is preventing you from killing other
beings. Killing other human beings would only be permitted if there was in fact
a higher goal to life. But for life in itself is absurd, killing is impermissible.14
To explain how Camus came to his conclusions about the absurd and
what Camus means exactly by ‘the absurd’, we need to go back to the
nineteenth century. The nineteenth century was a century marked by two
terrible world wars, which took place not very long after each other. The
aftermath of these wars continued on for quite some time (and with recent
terrorist attacks, fear of new wars will continue on being a part of reality).
8 Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov. ebookfreedom, (1927).
9Camus, Albert. The rebel: An essay on man in revolt. Vintage, (2012), 56-57
14Camus, Albert. The rebel: An essay on man in revolt. Vintage, (2012), 58-61

These horrible world wars were for a lot of individuals a very scary
demonstration of what humans were capable of under specific circumstances.
People began to think about how the world should change and how this
happened. Apart from greatly received post-war literature (The Discovery of
Heaven by Mulish15, The Book Thief by Zuzak16), the rise of jazz and blues music
and the Hells Angels, the result of this thinking was that western society
wanted to rethink their thinking17. Where philosophers had until that point in
time mainly been pre-occupied by describing what the essence of human life
was (‘Cogito ergo sum’18; ‘Only with reason can one exceed appearances so the
forms can be known’19; ‘The essence of every human is good’20) and prescribing
how a ‘good’ human should live21, now philosophers were not able to let go of
the thought that previous philosophies about humans using their cognitive
potential to make the world a good place did not work22. There was a new
theory needed: the theory of the absurd.
Camus defines the theory of the absurd as follows23: life has no pre-
given meaning; this does however not mean that humans can slaughter one
15 Review The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Hulisch, http://www.complete-
review.com/reviews/mulischh/heaven.htm, (accessed December 6, 2015)
16 Review The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak,
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/jan/06/featuresreviews.guardianrevi
ew26, (accessed December 6, 2015)
18 Descartes, René. Principia philosophiae. apud Ludovicum Elzevirium, (1994).
19 Bloom, Allan David. The republic of Plato. Basic Books, (1991).
20 Kant, Immanuel. Fundamental principles of the metaphysics of morals. Courier
Corporation, (2012).
21 Aristotle's Nicomachean ethics. University of Chicago Press, (2011).

another. Killing your fellow human would in fact deny the principle of the
absurd. Saying ‘life is meaningless and therefore we can kill it without doing
something wrong’ would in fact mean the same thing as saying ‘life is
meaningful and therefore you should life up to a certain goal’. Because
according to Camus life has no pre-given meaning, both of these statements
make no sense. Life is neither meaningful nor meaningless; life has no meaning
at all.
The Absurd and the Beautiful World
Camus wrote many shorter essays on the relationship between our
absurd existence and this stunningly absurd world. Although many of these
essays do not lead to a strong conclusions and part of them doesn’t have a
conclusion at all, these early essays and thoughts provide a valuable insight in
Camus’ thinking process and his view on this world. It shines through in most
of his essays that Camus has a broad fascination for the beauty in this world.
Even if most of his essays are not about the beauty of the world directly, he
mentions terrestrial beauty as a contrast to human suffering in almost all his
essays. One of the most illustrative examples can be found in one of Camus’
earlier essays Irony24:
“None of this fits together? How very true!
24 Camus, Albert. Lyrical and critical essays. Vintage, (2012), 29

A woman you leave behind to go to the movies, an old man to whom you
have stopped listening, a death that redeemed nothing, and then, on the other
hand the whole radiance of the world. What difference does it make if you accept
everything? Here are three destinies, different and yet alike.
Death for us all, but his own death to each. After all, the sun still warms
our bones for us.”
Our beautiful world is indifferent of human suffering and irony in human
behaviour. The sun will shine on; the world will stay radiant no matter what
happens. Meaning can’t be found in our world because the pre-given meaning
many humans are looking for does not exist. Meaning can only be given to life
through human relationships and communication. Give meaning to your life by
doing what lies in the essence of every human: be a rebel25. Accept no child
sacrifice because there is no possible justification of that child sacrifice.
Ivan Karamazov takes his nihilism too far, he is torn between
unacceptable suffering and the longing for consistent moral rules26. By
accepting life had no meaning, he let his father be killed because his nihilism
leads him to conclude that there are no rules. He is tormented between being
virtuous and illogical or being logical and criminal27. He chooses the latter, but
he, as many rebels would, struggles with his decision. Is the only possible
consequence of the acceptance of the absurd total nihilism? And does this mean
26 Camus, Albert. The rebel: An essay on man in revolt. Vintage, (2012), 57-58

that only two worlds can exist in the human mind; the sacred world, where
children are sacrificed for the sake of truth, and the world of rebellion, where
logical criminals can defend themselves by saying life has no meaning? Does
rejecting one of those automatically give us the other28?
Nihilism
In his Science of Logic, Hegel argues that things need to reach a state
‘beyond finite’ to become real29. Inspired by Plato’s idea of forms30, Hegel
accepts the idea of ‘the absolute knowledge’31; the idea that every society acts
as the means to a logical end in nature. Every event on this serves a purpose in
the logical, self-perfecting whole. Because for Hegel, the world did no longer
need to find grace or meaning in a divine world32, moral rules about human
behaviour were no longer needed. Stirner follows Hegel in saying human power
is the only form of freedom.33 According to Stirner, everything a human can
make use of is good, and everything a human is capable of doing is legitimately
authorised.34 The divine world is rejected and the cruel, logical world is
accepted.
29 Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. Hegel's science of logic. (1969).
30 Bloom, Allan David. The republic of Plato. Basic Books, (1991).
31 Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. Hegel's science of logic. (1969).
32 Drs. Nietzshe and Hegel: The Antidote to Postmodern Nihilism from Hegel and
the Solution, https://kenfoldes.wordpress.com/2015/04/08/drs-nietzsche-
and-hegel-the-antidote-to-postmodern-nihilism-from-hegel-and-the-solution/
(assessed on December 6, 2015)

Nietzsche, crowning himself as ‘the first complete nihilist of Europe’35,
took nihilism to a new level. After practising methodical negation36 to declare
‘Gott ist tot’37, he asked himself the question if it is possible to live, believing in
nothing38. For Nietzsche the answer was yes, the world continues on at random
so God is useless for if He exists, He wants nothing in particular.39 The freedom
getting rid of Gods brings, is not an easy one. Every violent act of mankind
becomes one we are responsible for. There is no justification for human
suffering anymore. Freedom can only exist in a world with restrictions.
Lawlessness does not lead to freedom but to slavery40. Nietzsche’s nihilism
turns Karamazov’s ‘if nothing is true, everything is permitted’ into ‘if nothing is
true, nothing is permitted’41.
For Camus nihilism cannot be the only possible consequence of the
acceptance of the absurd, for all forms of nihilism end in the acceptance of
human suffering. Maybe accepting the absurd alone is not enough.
What is Rebellion?
To get an idea of what other characteristics are needed in order to be a
rebel, it is useful to have a closer look at what exactly Camus means by
‘rebellion’. First of all it is important to note Camus is discussing rebellion
37 ‘God is dead’; Nietzsche, Friedrich. Also sprach Zarathustra: ein Buch für alle
und keinen. Goldmann Verlag, (2010).

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primarily as a(n essential) human characteristic and not as an action or
political rebellion. What makes this matter confusing (not only to the reader
but to the rebel himself too), is that where political rebellion is often times the
only way for rebels to reach their goals, it is also political rebellion that often
times calls for extraordinary measures including human sacrifice and suffering.
Ultimately, to prevent all unnecessary human suffering, human suffering seems
to be unpreventable42.
Camus defines rebellion as the ability and duty of every human being to
identify himself with others and surpass himself43. A rebel does not try to
conquer but rather to impose. He is fighting for integrity of the part in his being
that longs so badly for solidarity and fairness in the world.44 Rebellion,
according to Camus, may appear negative because it creates nothing, but is in
fact positive. It reveals a part of man which must always be defended45. A part
that embodies the essence of love, the ability to see beauty and pride not only
in the world but also (and especially) in other people.
How does his rebel, concerned with the wellbeing of his fellow man, deal
with the absurd? This question is a difficult one. Ivan Karamazov tried to be a
good rebel, but when he accepted the absurd, the consequences were that he
did not see how in an absurd and non-divine world, it could be defended that
not everything would be permitted. And as a consequence, he let his father be

killed46. Comparably, the relationship between idealistic rebellion and practical
rebellion is complicated. Idealistic rebellion asks of people to be concerned
with fellow humans and to assure they are not harmed47. Practical rebellion
asks of people to start a political revolution to ensure the world becomes a
better place for all and suffering is completely gone48. Rebellion is not
realistic49 and contradictory50. Therefore it is not surprising that the rebel is
torn.
Significance of the Torn Rebel
We established that Camus stated rebellion is contradictory51 and
unrealistic52. The rebel ideally wants to do harm to nobody and stay true to his
beliefs, but knows that to establish a significant change in human suffering, he
must use political revolution as his tool. For political revolution allows human
sacrifice for the greater good, to be able to say ‘yes’ to a better world53, a rebel
has to cut the world in two to be able to strike54. To act as a rebel means to give
up your identity as a rebel55. This is the ultimate sacrifice a rebel can deliver.
What justifies this sacrifice as a means, according to Camus, is the end56. A

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world in which rebellion is no longer needed. And the end than again gets
justified by the means57.
Is a world in which rebellion is no longer needed realistic? According to
Camus not. Rebellion (as art) will die only with the last man58. The goal of the
rebel is not to solve the world, it is to confront what is wrong in it59. To realise
other humans of flesh and blood are breathing the same air and marching the
same fields60. To accept earth, absurd as she may be, in all her glory with all
that lives on it. To (try to) be in peace and let others be in peace.
Further Thoughts
Camus’ The Rebel has influenced philosophers for decades after his
death. One of the contemporary philosophers he influenced, Paul Berman, used
Camus’ ideas about the world we must say ‘yes’ to even if, in extreme cases, this
might lead to the sacrifice of one’s rebellion61, to argue in his book Terror and
Liberalism62 that following the attacks on 9/11 2001, democracy in the Arab
world and the defeating of Al Qaeda are an essential cause that justifies
invasion of the Arabic world and potential death of thousands. The fact Camus
was of inspiration for Berman and others that used his ideas to promote similar
ideologies, is concerning. Although Camus would certainly have agreed with
Berman that the attacks on the World Trade Centre were tragic and that
62 Berman, Paul. Terror and liberalism. WW Norton & Company, (2004).

rebellion requires us to say ‘no’ to the reality in which attacks like this one
happen and ‘yes’ to an alternate one, Camus would certainly not have agreed
that the correct response to these attacks was to start bombing Afghanistan. If
anything, this course of action ended with more violence.
Camus has had a lot of influence on Western thinking. Especially when
something terrible happens in the Western world (the second world war The
Rebel itself is inspired by, the attacks on 9/11 and who knows, people might be
writing about him again after the attacks in Paris). That is when Camus seems
to enter philosophers’ minds again. This fact leads to a tragic paradox. Camus
seems to be reminded only after tragedy strikes. For the first edition of his
essay only appeared in 1954, eight years after the end of the Second World
War, we can safely assume Camus carefully thought about the exact definitions
and nuances of what he wanted to publish. One of the reasons it is difficult to
find examples of Camus’ rebel in action is that where rationally, his theory is
very well thought of and elaborate, it is also complicated to get a grip of.
Because people come back to Camus’ work in times of crisis and terror, and
scientifically this is not the best time to be reminded of complex, nuanced
elaborate theories63, it is not surprising Camus’ essay is not interpreted by all
with all the care and attention it deserves. This makes Albert Camus, tormented
as a rebel that wanted to do good, but conflicted between action and ideology,
tragic. Camus’ goal in writing The Rebel was to explore how rebellion could lead
to a world where man would walk hand in hand, fighting injustice. Sadly, the
63 Isen, Alice M. "On the relationship between affect and creative problem
solving." Affect, creative experience, and psychological adjustment 3 (1999), 69

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interpretation of his works is not fighting it but multiplying it. If Dimitri
Karamazov’s cry of ‘why’ will continue to resound64, so will Albert Camus’.

Bibliography
Aristotle's Nicomachean ethics. University of Chicago Press, 2011.
Berman, Paul. Terror and liberalism. WW Norton & Company, 2004.
Bloom, Allan David. The republic of Plato. Basic Books, 1991.
Camus, Albert. The rebel: An essay on man in revolt. Vintage, 2012.
Descartes, René. Principia philosophiae. apud Ludovicum Elzevirium, 1994.
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. Hegel's science of logic, 1969.
Kant, Immanuel. Fundamental principles of the metaphysics of morals. Courier
Corporation, 2012.
Isen, Alice M. "On the relationship between affect and creative problem
solving." Affect, creative experience, and psychological adjustment 3
(1999), 69
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Also sprach Zarathustra: ein Buch für alle und keinen.
Goldmann Verlag, 2010.
Review The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Hulisch, http://www.complete-
review.com/reviews/mulischh/heaven.htm, (accessed December 6, 2015)
Review The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak,
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/jan/06/featuresreviews.guard
ianreview26, (accessed December 6, 2015)
Drs. Nietzshe and Hegel: The Antidote to Postmodern Nihilism from Hegel and
the Solution, https://kenfoldes.wordpress.com/2015/04/08/drs-
nietzsche-and-hegel-the-antidote-to-postmodern-nihilism-from-hegel-
and-the-solution/ (assessed on December 6, 2015)

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