Violence in Camus and Sartre: Ambiguities

The friendship between Albert Camus and Jean‐Paul Sartre was torn apart over the question of the justifiability of violence in the service of a desired political end. I argue that the undeniable political and moral differences between Sartre and Camus are in fact ones of emphasis and not, as they themselves came to believe, ones of total opposition. A careful consideration of points of connection, however ambiguous, allows for a more nuanced narrative of Sartre’s and Camus’s famous relationship and of debates about justice and the legitimacy of violence that remain central to our contemporary world.