Research Paper on:
Albert Camus' "The Rebel"

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
of metaphysical revolt , beginning with the "absolute negation of Sade, glancing at Baudelaire and the dandies, passing on to Stirner, Nietzsche, Lautreamont and the Surrealists" (8). The central thesis  of The Rebel is how to salvage the good of rebellion from the evil of revolution. Camus begins by defining the term "rebel." He state that a rebel is  a "man who says no" (19). But a rebel is also a "man who says yes as soon as he begins to think for himself" (19). In saying "yes" and  "no," a person establishes his or her limits or boundaries. The "metaphysical rebellion" is the means by which "a man protests against his condition and against the whole of creation"  (29). The slave who opposes his master is not trying to repudiate his master as a human being, but is repudiating him as master (29). Camus goes on to argue  that Sade was one of historys first metaphysical rebels. Camus, as mentioned above, goes on to expand this discussion to a wider field, giving a comprehensive overview of rebellion.  Continuing his survey of political thought, Camus describes how nineteenth century German thinkers, particularly Hegel, tried to continue the work of the French Revolution, while simultaneously endeavoring to suppress the  reasons for its failure (105). Hegel believed that the "seeds of the Terror" could be seen in the abstract principles that governed the thinking of the Jacobins (105). Hegel believed  that the rule of abstract law would be equal the equivalent of oppression in every instance (105). Pisare, the "theoretician of Russian nihilism, says Camus, stated that the greatest  fanatics are children and adolescents (120). Camus also believes this to be true of nations. Russian, he pictures as an adolescent nation, that was "delivered by forceps" barely a century