The ideas of Albert Camus and Immanuel Kant are not often thought of as sharing
pronounced similarities. However, both thinkers are deeply concerned with role of
aesthetics in moral, and subsequently, political life. According to each, taste is a faculty
whereby one is able to develop the "moral insight" needed for the flourishing of a robust,
thoughtful, ethical individual. Yet, both Camus and Kant utilize highly divergent
methodologies in going about this. Camus prefers the artistic form and poetic language
offered by the novel and Kant prefers the logical rigor of critical philosophical
arguments.
This thesis hopes to reveal that this methodological chasm allows one thinker to
express what the other cannot. Camus is able to artistically and beautifully express the
absurdity of moral life in such a way that is ripe with personal resonance and meaning;
while Kant is able to philosophically ground Camus' concerns in a logically thorough
manner. Utilizing the novels of Camus and the works of Kant, this thesis posits that
Camus and Kant are complimentary thinkers, each in need of one another in order to
express a more nuanced conception of politics in which judgment and aesthetic taste play
a key role. Such a project also hopes to demonstrate the importance of aesthetics and
artistic expression in the maintenance of a just political order.
