1: Introduction -- 2: Fighting Hybris: Revolt as modern morality -- 3: An act of modesty: Care in the Plague -- 4: Modesty as radical attitude. A comparison between Democracy and Art -- 5: Against International Dictatorship: A modest Utopia -- 6: “The worst enemy of itself”. Europe as a divided, dying and helpless civilisation -- 7: For a decolonial federalism: the Algerian debate and the rejection of nationalism -- 8: Conclusions: Modesty as a Camusian lesson for the XXI century.

This book explores the role of modesty in the thought of Albert Camus. Camusian modesty – modestie – affirms, against nihilism and absolutism, the necessity of taking care and putting passion into the relativity of human creation and recreation. The book shows how this care and passion spring from the necessity of a continually renewed tension between the self and the limits which transcend the self. From this standpoint, modesty is not a form of moderation; it goes to the root of human condition in face of the absurd. It is a radical attitude which engages human life in a daily struggle for meaning. With modesty in mind, Camus reimagined the relation between meaning and absurdity, history and nature, self and other, nation state and continent, global north and south, and war and peace. In a world of arrogance, narcissism, and fear, Camus’ philosophical and political insights are fundamental in order to re-think and re-imagine our present. Tommaso Visone is Associate Professor of History of Political Doctrines at Link University and Adjunct Professor of Political Thought for Colonization and Decolonization at Sapienza University of Rome. He is also Research Fellow at the Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies of CNR (National Council of Research), Rome.