#135 / I'm With Camus

Pictured is Albert Camus. 

After he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in Stockholm in 1957, Camus was interviewed by an Arab student about his positions on the Algerian war. Camus said this: "People are now planting bombs in the tramways of Algiers. My mother might be on one of those tramways. If that is justice, then I prefer my mother."

According to the April 20th edition of Amor Mundi, the Hannah Arendt Center blog, this statement was controversial. For instance, Norman Podhoretz is quoted as saying: "When [Camus] declared that he chose his mother above justice, he was ... choosing 'his own tribe' against an abstract ideal of universal justice."

Norman! I don't think that Camus was "choosing his mother above justice." Camus was questioning whether "justice" could ever consist of blowing up mothers in tramways. His answer was "no."

I'm with Camus. 

Image Credit:

http://thefunambulist.net/2010/12/17/philosophy-albert-camus-revolt/