The human experience of evil and metaphysical revolt: an analysis based on the works of Albert Camus

Abstract

The present article aims to provide an analysis of the human experience of evil from two complementary perspectives. First, the human experience of evil from the perspective of the classical Greek tradition, based on the fundamental text of the bard Hesiod. From this foundation, we will present the inferences that the concept of metaphysical revolt offers as a possible response to the Christian theodicy’s interpretation of the human condition marked by the experience of evil. One of the fundamental issues of the Christian interpretation of the experience of evil is closely tied to the relationship between the human being, in their condition as a creature, and the Creator, in His condition of estrangement due to Adamic sin, which drives metaphysical revolt as a philosophical and artistic experience of contesting this Adamic condition. This analysis will be approached through the works of Camus, primarily based on the philosophical essay The Rebel (1951). Drawing from a series of complementary works, we will seek to demonstrate the complexification of the concept of metaphysical revolt towards collective struggle as a response to the experience of evil. These themes constitute a fundamental part of the Algerian author's thought in his effort to construct an apparent historiography of revolt and the human condition.