The Historical Trajectory of Intellectual Leadership in Directing the Dominant and Rebellious Man: From the Philosophical Perspectives of Albert Camus and Samuel Huntington

Abstract

This study attempts to uncover the internal and philosophical drivers of the course of history by investigating and comparing two opposing psychological and intellectual approaches: the "Dominant Man" in Samuel Huntington's Theory of the Clash of Civilizations, and the "Rebellious Man" in Albert Camus's existential and ethical philosophy. The core problem of the research revolves around the structure of regional/contextual consciousness: First, is history the product of power struggles and a closed cycle of cultural dominance as Huntington perceives it, or is it a complex process in which free conscience and moral rebellion—as Camus sees it—alter its trajectory? This study attempts to find a bridge between these two perspectives to transcend the dichotomies of their models and identify an alternative path.

The contextual foundation for the emergence of the "will to dominate" as a collective instinct in Huntington's thought is analyzed alongside the "will to moral challenge" in Camus's philosophy. These two distinct viewpoints illuminate, on one hand, the history of civilizations as a multipolar arena where the Dominant Man utilizes core states to impose cultural hegemony; on the other hand, Camus's concept of the Rebellious Man is presented as the moral engine of history. Ultimately, this aims to show how the Rebellious Man, beyond the framework of Eurocentrism, becomes a historical agent resisting subjugation and forging a new, free identity—guiding the course of history toward a new horizon grounded in human conscientious strength. It involves a tragic cycle wherein the limitless rebel transforms into a new dominant actor, initiating a new phase of clash based on fanatical collective identity versus the free individual conscience. Because the roots of the clash of civilizations stem from the dominance of nihilism in the modern world, the continuation of human existence relies on a theory of moral balance, in which rebellion becomes an instrument of justice rather than a means to impose a new hegemony.