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A just judgement? Considerations on Ronald Srigley’s Camus’ Critique of Modernity
journal contribution
posted on 2014-02-01, 00:00 authored by Matthew SharpeThis paper responds critically to Ronald Srigley’s groundbreaking 2011 study Albert Camus’ Critique of Modernity. Srigley’s book reasserts Camus’ credentials as a deeply serious thinker, whose literary and philosophical oeuvre was dedicated to rethinking modernity on the basis of critical reassessments of theWest’s entire premodern heritage. Yet we challenge whether Camus was ever, even in his final writings, so uncompromisingly anti-modern as Srigley contends. Srigley’s attempt to present Camus as committed to a return to the Greeks, on the basis of a total critique of modernity as deleteriously post-Christian, forces him to occlude important distinctions in Camus’ thought: those between unity and totality, rebellion and revolution. By contrast, we compare Camus’ defence of modern rebellion with Blumenberg’s argument in The Legitimacy of the Modern Age: finding justification for this rebellion in the deep problem faced by Christian theology of resolving the ‘problem of evil’. Finally, we suggest that Srigley overplays the extent of Camus’ ‘Hellenic’ critique of the Christian heritage (notably its ethical commitment to protecting the weak), in contrast to Christian theodicy and eschatology, which serve to rationalize avoidable suffering.
History
Journal
Thesis ElevenVolume
120Issue
1Pagination
43 - 58Publisher
Sage PublicationsLocation
London, UKPublisher DOI
ISSN
0725-5136eISSN
1461-7455Language
engPublication classification
C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2014, Sage PublishingUsage metrics
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