In this paper, I highlight the philosophical differences between Camus’s and Sartre’s notions of the absurd. “The absurd” is a technical term for both philosophers, and they mean different things by it. The Camusian absurd is a mismatch between theoretical reasoning and practical reasoning. The Sartrean absurd, in contrast, is our theoretical inability to explain contingency or existence. For Sartre, there is only relative, local absurdity; for Camus, the absurd is universal and absolute. I show how their different understandings of the absurd led to Sartre’s misreading of The Stranger; he misses its main mechanism for generating the feeling of the absurd because he reads the novel through his own conception. In order to draw out their philosophical differences, I will provide a reading of the novel that contrasts with Sartre’s.

在这篇论文中，我强调了加缪和萨特的荒诞观念之间的哲学差异。“荒谬”对两位哲学家来说都是一个技术术语，他们的意思不同。加缪式的荒谬是理论推理和实践推理之间的不匹配。相反，萨特式的荒谬是我们理论上无法解释偶然性或存在。对于萨特来说，只有相对的、局部的荒谬；对加缪来说，荒诞是普遍的和绝对的。我展示了他们对荒诞的不同理解是如何导致萨特误读《陌生人》的；他错过了产生荒诞感的主要机制，因为他是通过自己的观念来阅读小说的。为了找出他们的哲学差异，我将提供与萨特的对比小说的阅读。