Fighting Hybris: Revolt as Modern Morality

This chapter delves into Camus’ attempt to define a possible modern morality through the concept of Revolt. To achieve this, he criticises the effort to reintroduce the dimension of the sacred using the contemporary ideology and praxis of Revolution. This approach represents a return to a messianic attitude and, with it, the criminalisation of man in the name of a new absolute truth. This new absolute truth translates into a triumph of hubris and, with its limitless attitude, nihilism. In contrast, Camus asserts reasons for a Revolt that entails firstly a return to tension, to a measure, which is a living and creative contradiction—a conflict between different human exigencies.