The Fall of Man

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Philosophy’s Most Terrifying Idea | Albert Camus's The Fall"

The Fall of Man

god is not needed to pass judgment our

fellow men suffice aided by ourselves

imagine that in a single moment

everything you currently take meaning

and purpose in became hollow and vapid

to you that tomorrow you woke up to find

your work unfulfilling your family

strangely unnerving and your romantic

partner repulsive worst of all you

realize you've been fooling yourself

your entire life about almost everything

you discover that you are a cruer and

more vicious person than you ever

thought possible you spiral into despair

grasping at anything that might give you

temporary relief from this awful state

you finally arrive at the bottom of a

deep well clawing at the smooth walls in

the vain hope of ascension willing to

give up anything if only you would be

saved from this sorry state this is

roughly speaking what an existential

crisis feels like the foundations of our

existence are taken out from under us

and our entire life starts to spin out

of control a lot has been written on the

nature and causes of existential crisis

but perhaps no one has put this feeling

into words quite as well as Albear Kamu

in his final published novel The Fall

the Fall follows a man named Jean

Baptiste Clamos a lawyer who has moved

from Paris to Amsterdam and who spends

most of his time in a CD bar at the very

center of the city's infamous red light

district through the novel Clemens

gradually relates to us his fall from

the societal graces of Paris and how he

became disillusioned with humanity

itself get ready to learn how we are all

deeply hypocritical how this novel poses

questions you cannot possibly unsee and

so much more as always bear in mind that

this is just my interpretation of this

work and also that The Fall is notorious

for different people taking very

different things from it so I encourage

you to read it for yourself for the full

effect but let's start with what

Clemens's life was like before his

titular fall and how it swed the seeds

for his eventual collapse one a

A Supposedly Idyllic Life

supposedly idilic life the first few

chapters of the novel see Clemence

telling us about his life in Paris when

he was still naive and innocent before

the crisis that would turn him inside

out he worked as a lawyer defending

people from prosecution and from his

tales this was a truly marvelous life he

felt an ease in his movements an

unshakable self-confidence and a gentle

kindness flowed from him wherever he

went in one of his stories he narrates

how he defended someone's husband in the

law courts without charging them any

money and how the defendant's wife

showered him with praise for this with

him eventually kissing her hand to

shorten her everrowing thanks for giving

her husband a second chance in response

to all of these compliments Clemens

turned on his heels and walked away all

to preserve the praises proper resonance

indeed this general magnanmity seemed to

permeate his life he describes how he

would help blind men cross the street be

courteous to the point of fame and how

he worked hard to allow those around him

to feel totally relaxed in his presence

to anyone watching it would seem like he

was a genuinely kind and benevolent

person he even professes to have taken

great joy in all of these actions far

from begrudgingly aiding his fellow

Parisian Clement practically fell over

himself for the chance to help other

people however all is not quite what it

seems even at this point we see a fatal

aspect of Clemens's character lurking

just beneath the surface one that will

eventually come to torture him looking

back on it all Clemens confesses that he

did all of this not so much out of a

desire to see other people benefit but

purely for his own reputational gain in

other words even when he was committing

all of these kind actions the only thing

on his mind was personal gain be that

emotional or social and this was not

merely in the trivial way that everyone

could be described as selfish doing good

deeds and avoiding bad ones in order to

escape the wroth of our own conscience

but rather because Clement saw himself

as playing a certain role one that would

grant him innumerable advantages both in

his own identity and through the

perspectives of other people clemence

came to this conclusion because he

noticed there were certain behaviors he

undertook when performing these

benevolent actions that were purely for

show the key example he uses to

illustrate this is that he used to do

his cap to blind people after helping

them across the street he couldn't have

been doing this for the person he was

helping because that person was totally

blind instead he admits this was all for

the performance he was taking a self-

congratulatory bow after having played

his character to perfection and

hammering at home to anyone around him

that he has just done a good deed and

the applause he received for all this

had its own purpose at one point

Clemence notes that in Paris he was

comforted by the knowledge that he was

in some ways superior to all the people

around him and that this belief rested

not just on his own private opinion but

also on all of this praise he received

from his peers he had an enviable sort

of innocent confidence it did not even

cross his mind that he might not be a

man of the most excellent character

because he was constantly being told

this by everyone he met and as of yet he

had no significant evidence to the

contrary at this point his sense of

meaning is safe and secure behind the

bullwalk of societal acceptance and he

was so self- assured that he had no

qualms whatsoever in taking whatever he

wanted from life he describes how in his

life in Paris he was something of a

womanizer and he says he felt a perverse

sense of ownership over the women he

courted in his naive arrogance he would

not be satisfied until they had declared

that they would love no other but him

and at this very moment he would lose

interest since they'd now done the work

of supporting his identity he was not

forming bonds with these people he was

merely using them as existential props

his romantic success was yet another

piece of evidence that he was uniquely

brilliant among men it is almost like

every aspect of Clance's existence had

conspired to bolster his confidence he

felt like he was on top of the world

making his later fall all the more

painful in other words Clemens could

take a great joy in his life because his

identity and purpose was perfectly

stable and intact he had an unshakable

conviction that he was a good man an

intelligent man and a successful man he

describes feeling like a ruler or a

conqueror or some great hero of enormous

significance and moreover it never even

entered his head to question this rather

generous judgment of himself clemensce

in Paris is a man totally without

self-consciousness and as a result he is

in total existential bliss he has no

sense of guilt or shame or emptiness

since he has not reflected on potential

faults of his character or the ways in

which his meaning for life might be

insufficient he has not yet learned to

fear the judgments of other people

because what would there be to judge he

dances along in life in his own words

totally at ease and yet satisfied with

nothing he was totally relaxed yet could

crave more of anything more life more

sex more money and each time he felt

totally entitled to this though it seems

strange we could compare Clemens to a

kind of child here he is essentially in

a state that precedes self-awareness he

is not conscious of his own faults and

is totally satisfied with this situation

despite using women purely for his own

pleasure and harboring by his own

admission only selfish desires he can

still conjure up an idea of himself as a

good and grand person as is suggested by

the title of the novel Kamu is drawing

on some very Christian themes here in

Paris Clemence is like Adam and Eve

before they ate the forbidden fruit from

the tree of knowledge and learned about

good and evil he never has the sheen of

self-conscious judgment interfering with

his life he is as he puts it in Eden

Shermasure no intermediary between life

and me but though he does not know it

yet Clemense is in a highly precarious

position because his whole sense of

meaning rests on an illusion his

innocent view of himself and of mankind

as a whole is simply false and soon

events come together to bring him

crashing down from his tower of self

arrandisement to play in the mud this

transition from a comfortable lie to a

deeply uncomfortable truth is a theme

peppered through Kamu's philosophy

according to him you cannot run from the

truth because eventually it will catch

you and when it does we had better be

prepared clemons was certainly not and

he faces an unenviable situation as a

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description two innocence lost what do

Innocence Lost

you think are the sort of things that

can give someone an existential crisis

various scenarios immediately come to

mind it might be the death of a loved

one or infidelity in a long-term

relationship or realizing that our

long-held dreams will never come to

fruition in each case we have a general

theme a belief that we took great

meaning and solace in is shown either to

be false or not to be nearly as

significant as we thought while we may

have intellectually known that our

family was mortal it did not properly

sink in until one of them passed away we

may have lived many years in the

assurance of our partner's undying

faithfulness but then it all collapsed

in a mere moment as a youth we may have

fallen in love with the idea of fame and

fortune but then we hit a certain age

and we realize that it probably isn't

happening many people fall into an

existential crisis if they lose their

faith in God in each case the

convictions that form the bedrock of our

motivations for living have been utterly

destroyed and unsurprisingly we fall

into a mixture of confusion and despair

in the case of Clemenance his meaning

stems from this picture he has of

himself as fundamentally good and great

but events begin to align to undermine

this idilic self-image first he gets

into an altercation with a young

motorcyclist on the streets of Paris and

in a scuffle with the crowd he gets hit

in the face for his troubles clemence is

dumbruck and this has left him looking

like a fool in front of the assembled

traffic this creates the first dent in

the armor of Clemens's self-satisfaction

he had previously thought of himself as

brave and physically powerful as he puts

it he wished to dominate all things and

a large part of him genuinely believed

that he could for whatever he did either

he excelled at it or he thought that he

probably would excel at it if only he

had the spare time to practice it more

however in one stroke his asalant has

forced him to confront a minor example

of his own impotence a lot of people

would probably get irritated at the

indignity of this experience but

ultimately get over it pretty quickly

but remember for Clement self-image is

everything he has not yet learned to

recognize even one of his faults he is

totally in love with himself believing

himself a near perfect being so he

becomes like a spiteful child who has

had one of their wishes thwarted he

ruminates for days about what he would

do to that bastard if he ever got his

hands on him he escapes into resentful

revenge fantasies and chastises himself

for having been treated in such a way

this is also the moment where Clemens

learns to be judgmental previously he

had been totally secure and so felt no

need to condemn others after all he only

experienced praise and agilation but now

he becomes acutely aware of the human

instinct to judge and chastise as he

puts it "When I was threatened I became

not only a judge in turn but even more

an irassable master who wanted despite

all laws to strike down the offender and

get him on his knees." This theme of

judgment becomes very important later

because Clemence will grow to fear the

harsh looks of other people much more

acutely the further his own self-image

degrades the event that seals Clman's

fate however attacks not just his

competence but his virtue as a person

when he is walking through the streets

one night he spies a woman standing at

the edge of a bridge he has a strange

feeling but ignores it and carries on

walking but then he hears a splash and

screams behind him and realizes the

woman has jumped to her death into the

river sane much to Clemens's surprise

all of his heroism and love for humanity

has vanished in an instant rather than

rushing in to help the poor woman

risking his own skin in the process he

stands there passive and silent he does

nothing he says he wanted to run and yet

didn't stir after he has witnessed this

horrific event he rushes home and tells

no one of the encounter not even reading

the papers the next day for fear of

learning about the woman though he

ultimately denies it it is clearance

feels deeply ashamed of his inaction

even if he does not know it yet his

identity has become irreparably

shattered according to Clemence his life

continues much as normal for the next 3

years or so but then one day when he was

feeling particularly triumphant he

lights up a celebratory cigarette and

hears a laugh behind him not necessarily

a threatening laugh he even describes it

as friendly but one that nonetheless

seems to mock him he turns around to see

who it is but there is no one there

nonetheless this has a profound effect

on him and it is the very moment his

whole worldview falls apart it is when

he begins to face the absurd in Kamu's

philosophy the absurd is the gap that

opens up when we attempt to find meaning

in the universe and inevitably fail to

do so since without a god it is very

difficult for the universe to provide

meaning for us this is when we become

acutely aware that our lives are

objectively speaking pointless and

futile and when we are forced to decide

how to react to this harrowing

information for Clemence the laugh in

the darkness infects him and begins to

nurse a scornful and mocking attitude

towards life and the people around him

it in effect gifts him a kind of

forbidden knowledge it tells him that

human life is not a dignified serious

affair at all but is instead comedic

worth laughing at and perhaps more

worryingly Clemens decides that those

who do not yet know this are

fundamentally beneath him whereas before

he felt a sort of selfishly tinged

brotherly love for his fellow man now he

was filled with a spiteful contempt put

a pin in this as we will revisit this

concept in the next section and

Clemens's new nihilistic attitude does

not just affect his outlook going

forward either it reaches back into the

past to reveal the hidden motivations of

all of his previous actions whereas

before he had no self-consciousness and

so viewed his supposed goodwill towards

others as genuine and selfless now he

can see it for what it was a tool of his

own self arandizing that he maintained

to puff himself up in hindsight he

considers all of this kindness as not a

sincere reflection of his innermost

feelings but rather a kind of role he

was playing he is a mere actor who

struts and frets his hour upon the stage

and then is heard no more the sincerity

is robbed out of every one of his

decisions and behaviors painting his

entire life as essentially meaningless

busy work mere distractions on the route

to the grave but beyond this he is

convinced of the emptiness of everyone

else's little roles as well the

hypocrisy of mankind becomes unbearable

to him he sees people judging others

while being full of sin themselves and

is essentially two-faced this leads him

to theorize about mankind's double

nature where we fool ourselves into

thinking we are better than we are

because that is the only possible way we

could stay sane and be able to live with

ourselves worst of all he realizes that

we humans have such an aptitude for

selfdeception that we fool ourselves

into thinking that we're being sincere

he compares everyone including himself

to the person who wants the waitress at

the restaurant to smile at us so we are

relieved of the guilt of having

temporarily turned her into our servant

most of all Clemens becomes aware of all

of his own faults and he realizes there

is much that other people could judge

him for as well this all leads him to

some truly erratic yet fascinating

behaviors which is just what we shall

look at next three rebellion and

Rebellion and Cynicism

cynicism in Milton's famous poem

Paradise Lost the character of Satan

reacts to his imprisonment in hell by

giving himself over to complete and

utter rebellion against God rather than

face up to his own crimes he rejects

divine judgment and vows to work against

God for all eternity in many ways

Clemence has a similar reaction to his

own situation as soon as he becomes

aware of his own imperfections he

becomes terrified that other people will

begin to judge him for them he can feel

everyone's eyes on him examining his

faults and he knows they will eventually

find them moreover the stakes are higher

for him than they would be for any of us

since he has no independent sense of

meaning to fall back on all he is is

what other people say about him at first

he tries to escape the judgment by any

means necessary so he drinks himself

into a stuper and has endless attempted

flings with the women he comes across

the intention here is to dull his mind

to such an extent that he loses his

newfound self-consciousness he is

drinking both to forget and to recover

his sense of confidence i'm sure many of

us can relate and this does work for a

short while he even says the laugh of

the absurd has become so faint that he

barely noticed it but soon he encounters

pretty dire health problems and has to

stop drinking and since he was not

interested in a genuine interpersonal

connection with any of his lovers when

he's sober he can't stand the sight of

them so he gives up on the romantic

approach as well now he has a clear head

he concocts a different idea he will

start to reveal the absurdities of the

world to those around him spreading his

self-consciousness to everyone and

dragging them down to his level as I

said in the last section he views the

judgments of other people as the height

of hypocrisy after all we are all

sometimes dishonest sometimes cruel

sometimes cowardly we all have things

that we could be judged for and found

lacking so why do we think that we are

fit to judge other people on Clemont's

analysis it is effectively a defense

mechanism to borrow his metaphor we spit

on others so they cannot spit on us

first we point the finger as an attempt

to divert the situation that we really

fear that others will quite rightly

single us out for criticism and censure

and it becomes Clemenc's mission to make

people notice this uncomfortable fact to

recognize the absurdity inherent in

their own existences at first he

attempts to do this by playing the part

of a modern-day Dioynes he argued in

public that the so-called innocent man

is just as guilty as the criminal they

are testifying against he would invoke

God in the company of atheists simply to

upset their worldview he would

demonstrate how all of us have done evil

actions or left potentially good actions

undone he consistently works to expose

the hypocrisy underlining our

interactions and rather than encouraging

us to come to terms with these

unbearable truths he instead wields them

like a weapon according to Clemenance

most of us are fooling ourselves in some

way about who we truly are we think we

are generous but we're actually

self-interested we think we are cool

collected and independent but deep down

we yearn for the approval of others we

consider ourselves a competent expert in

our field but in fact we are just making

do with the information we have as we go

along and everyone else's too what seems

like a grand rational structure of

people coming together to form stable

societies is actually a bunch of

emotionally driven apes desperately

trying to keep up their illusions

because we are not strong enough to face

the sheer absurdity of it all of course

in some ways Clemens is doing something

really quite cruel here he has

discovered a fact about the world that

makes him fundamentally unhappy and in

response to this he is spreading it

around so others can share in his misery

remember he is not an absurdist he has

not come to terms with the

meaninglessness of existence he is in

the middle of it fighting against it at

the same time he has become unable to

stand the hypocrisy of the world around

him and to a certain extent who can

blame him one of my favorite things

about Kamu's writing is that he crafts

brilliant characters like this ones

where you feel strangely sympathetic

because there is a certain sense

underlying their philosophy and you can

understand exactly where they're coming

from while at the same time being

repulsed by their indifferent or cruel

attitude to those around them kimu's

stories are a bit like car crashes in

slow motion you cannot help but be

fascinated while at the same time slowly

filling up with anxiety and through

Clance Kimu poses a profound question to

us as readers say we were in Clemence's

position what should we do if we

uncovered a terrible truth about the

world and had our innocence ripped away

from us in one fell swoop should we keep

this to ourselves if we found out that

the world was run through with hypocrisy

right down to its deepest level but that

the illusion of sincerity was all that

kept people from falling into despair

are we duty bound to guard this truth

preventing anyone from learning it how

should we react if we become convinced

that almost all human interaction is

steeped in dishonesty and that most

people hold a warped perception of

themselves as far greater and nobler

than they actually are yet at the same

time this is the only thing stopping

them from falling to pieces in front of

our eyes as perhaps one of the only

philosophers who argued there was no

solution to the problem of nihilism

other than just moving past it

altogether Kamu must have felt the

burden of forbidden knowledge resting on

his shoulders as well either way

Clemence has made his choice having

attempted to run from the absurd he now

preaches a twisted form of its gospel

and like any good prophet he comes with

his own solutions to these deep problems

in living and this is just what we shall

next examine four the judge penitent so

The Judge-Penitent

to sum up Clemence has two profound

issues he is deathly frightened of the

judgments of others and he is also

unable to cope with life's newfound

meaninglessness where can he go from

here well having had a go at being the

modern cynic laying out everyone's flaws

through ruthless critique he now devises

a subtler way to reclaim a place of

power over his peers and to also find

meaning in absurdity first he gives his

solution for everyone else and then he

reveals his own unique approach for

those of us who have not yet viscerally

faced the absurdity of existence

Clemence encourages us to limit our

self-consciousness as much as possible

and he says the only shorefire way to do

this is to serve something anything to

pledge ourselves to a cause or purpose

and follow it to hell if need be here we

must set hard limits on the questions we

ask we must run from existential

critique as if it were the plague this

is very similar to the concept of

philosophical suicide that Kimu talks

about in the myth of Seisphus to put it

bluntly we retreat into intellectual

cowardice we become like a child hiding

their face behind their hands when

something scary comes on the television

so deep is Clemens's existential

suffering that he conceives of free

thought itself as something

fundamentally destructive to us and he

says that doctrinal slavery is

infinitely preferable to his sorry state

but of course Clemence himself cannot

use this approach since he has already

asked these existential questions he

cannot unsee what he has seen so he

takes on the role of the judge penitant

in order to avoid the judgment of others

and recapture his sense of superiority

and human dignity the judge penitant is

someone who will point out their own

flaws for everyone to see they are no

longer interested in trying to rescue

their characters at all but instead bask

in their own self flagagillation this

instantly insulates them from criticism

others might throw at them by

essentially preempting whatever it is

they might say in itself this is not the

end of the world it can be quite freeing

to recognize our own faults and it does

release the pressure of having to craft

an idealized insincere persona to carry

around with us when we're out in public

but then Clemens's strategy takes a

sinister tone clemence realizes that

from this position of extreme

self-punishment he can start to judge

other people again this time without

hypocrisy he can lower himself to the

position of the villain and subtly imply

that we are in some ways very much like

him and perhaps to a certain extent he

is right one of the reasons I find

Clement such a fascinating character is

because he contains so many of our own

faults but pushed to an absurd degree if

you'll pardon the pun and this means we

might see dim reflections of Clemensce

in ourselves where do we nurse an

idealized image that does not correspond

to who we are where do we fool ourselves

into thinking that we are superior where

do we do everything in our power to

judge and condemn others positioning

ourselves above them and where do we

rest our own approach to life on a lie

clemence himself has never quite got

over this yearning for his old innocence

to be returned to him at the end of the

novel he shows us a stolen painting he

has come to possess it depicts judges

going to meet Jesus Christ the innocent

one the lamb of God he tells us he has

locked this symbol of innocence away to

show us that there are truly no innocent

parties there are no innocent people

there is no god there is no method by

which our sins become forgiven or

worthwhile but despite all of this

Clemensce truly longs to be forgiven to

be told that it is all okay that he has

been absolved of all of his faults and

can proceed onwards in innocence and

repentance but in a meaningless world

there is no one around to do that there

is no divine force to wipe away his sins

no savior coming to redeem him and us

humans are such unworthy judges that our

own forgiveness means nothing at all he

only has his actions his unalterable

history and his profound deficiencies in

character and he cannot stand it perhaps

many of us feel the same i know that I

do some of the time clemence may think

that he has conquered the absurd but he

is still suffering its effects on some

people's interpretations of the novel

Clamance is a dark version of Kamu's

absurd man the person who has made peace

with the meaninglessness of life and has

leared to move beyond it but I have to

gently disagree i think Clemence is

someone who is still deep in the

quagmire of an existential crisis and is

a wonderful illustration of just how

miserable cynical and outright

villainous it can make us and it all

stems from the arguably quite sensible

realization that there is no meaning out

in the universe clemence wishes to make

us aware of this fact and drag us down

to his level but do we have the strength

that he lacked to face the absurd headon

to embrace the radical freedom of a

godless world and all of the horrible

consequences that come along with it can

we lock eyes with the void without

flinching can we learn to do what

Clemens did not laugh with the absurd

rather than have it cackle mockingly in

our face i don't know the answer to this

question it is one of the starkkest and

darkest inquiries in existential

philosophy but I think camu's great and

personal novel does a wonderful job at

bringing it into focus and illustrating

just how bad things can get if we

continue to mourn our past innocence we

may not be able to unsee the absurd but

perhaps we can learn to greet it with a

smile rather than with hatred reading

the fall is a little bit like looking at

a basilisk the damage is done by the

time you turn the final page the

questions cannot be unasked the insight

cannot be unlearned all there is left to

do is deal with the consequences but

perhaps you want a more general

grounding in camu's philosophy well if

so check out this video to watch my

analysis of the myth of Cphus and stick

around for more on thinking to improve

your lifc