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Work #155 · Late

The Rebel

Albert Camus
1951 · French
Philosophical-political essay · French existentialism / absurdism

I rebel — therefore we exist. The metaphysical and historical analysis of rebellion as the proper response to absurdity, drawing the limits against totalitarian revolution

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute The Rebel (Late)
Time · Extent Infinite
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Infinite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Finite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Immediate
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Immediate
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Active
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency None
Observer · Moral Authority Experience
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Finite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Emergent
Information · Cosmic Conservation Non-conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Non-conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

The Rebel

Real historical time of revolt and revolution. The Rebel takes history seriously — the death toll of twentieth-century revolutionary regimes is philosophically central.

Space

The Rebel

The Mediterranean and the historical-cultural space of human rebellion. Real, substantival.

Matter

The Rebel

The body of the murdered, the suffering of the oppressed — material reality is the locus of moral and political reality.

Observer

The Rebel

The Camusian observer is the embodied rebel — embodied, plural (rebellion always invokes "we"), active, oriented to limits.

Energy

The Rebel

Standard background.

Information

The Rebel

No metaphysical guarantees, no cosmic record. Personal information not conserved.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

The Rebel

The Rebel's critique of Marxist-Leninist revolutionary totalitarianism provoked Sartre's break with Camus in 1952. The book has been read as a major statement of liberal anti-totalitarianism and also as politically inadequate to colonial Algeria (which Camus engaged separately and ambiguously). Modern reception has recovered its prescience while acknowledging its limits.