Abstract

Gabriel Marcel and Albert Camus both resist categorization as thinkers. Marcel may be regarded as a “Christian existentialist,” though he eventually questioned this label, and Camus has been viewed as the “philosopher of the absurd,” though he soon grew uneasy with this designation. Indeed, it is often overlooked that Camus’s thought underwent a remarkable shift from a preoccupation with the ineluctability of absurdity to a concentration on the possibility of revolt. It is also underappreciated that Marcel presented a detailed critique of Camus’s thought, though the reverse did not happen. The purpose of this paper is to outline Marcel’s critique of Camus and to examine its merits and demerits. The question is what role, if any, Marcel’s critique played in the passage of Camus’s thought from solitary resignation to the absurdity of the world to collective revolt against the injustice of human beings to their fellows.