Camus vs Sartre

Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre were friends turned intellectual enemies. Their split centered on one question: does the fight against absurdity justify violence? Sartre said yes — revolutionary violence was sometimes necessary. Camus said no — becoming a killer to fight injustice destroyed the moral authority of the fight itself.

The stand cost Camus his friendship with Sartre and much of the French intellectual establishment, which dismissed him as naive. History has been kinder. The violent revolutions Sartre endorsed produced authoritarian regimes, while Camus's insistence on limits anticipated the nonviolent movements that actually succeeded.