From Justice to Solidarity

Abstract

This chapter brings together two areas of Camus’s thought regarding the renewal of human freedom and dignity from the perspective of a politics of rebellion and measure. It first outlines the broader principles of reciprocal human rights and egalitarian socio-economic participation endorsed by Camus as the basis for a politics that strives for balance between the values of liberty, justice and equality. It then explores how Camus’s argument that political freedom and social equality complement each other is linked to his ideas that ethical and political attachments entail more than formal structures of government. Focusing on the powerful relations of love, friendship and solidarity, Hayden examines how these affective dispositions and felt social commitments embody an ethical-political opposition to injustice that implies a love of existence and the world itself.