Much Sense the Starkest Madness: Sade’s Moral Scepticism (original) (raw)
Related papers
An Unblinking Gaze: On the Philosophy of the Marquis de Sade (PhD thesis in philosophy)
Throughout the 20th Century, a number of philosophers, writers, artists and film makers have implied that there is some profound significance to the work of Donatien Alphonse François, the Marquis de Sade (1740-1814). The project at hand is to evaluate the claim that Sade, in some sense, is a philosopher, and to assess what his philosophy amounts to. There are two aspects to this task. Firstly, I will consider the various philosophical interpretations of Sade’s work. This part of the study will serve as a guide into the Sadeian labyrinth, and will establish some of the more central interpretive themes, in particular the claim that Sade’s thought anticipates that of the Nazis, or that he brings early Modern thought to its logical conclusion. Secondly, I will inquire into Sade’s writings themselves. Of particular interest are Sade’s thoughts concerning the nature of sexuality, psychology, and the human condition in general, his critique of conventional morality, and his description of the nature of power.
Sade, Enlightenment, Holocaust
Since Adorno and Horkheimer's Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944), a number of philosophers have debated whether Sade's novels had anticipated the doctrines and atrocities of Nazism. To date there has been no direct comparison between Sade's texts and what we know of Nazism and the Holocaust, leaving both association and interpretation vague. In response, I firstly note doctrinal commonalities between Sade's writings, 18 th Century thought, and Nazi doctrine. I then assess Adorno and Horkheimer's profoundly problematic association of Sade and Nazism with the Enlightenment and instrumentalised reason, and Jean Améry's association of Sade with the psychology of Nazi atrocity.
Appraisal, 2003
The present paper offers a succinct comparative study of the philosophical considerations on the nature and function of cruelty by the Marquis de Sade and by Friedrich Nietzsche. As such, this paper is meant to serve three main purposes: (1) It provides an account of the understanding of cruelty in the philosophies of these two thinkers, thus highlighting (although not probing further) a major axiological dimension involved in the moral assessment of cruelty; (2) It adds to the rather thin body of contemporary studies in philosophy and in the history of ideas dealing with cruelty; (3) It develops a detailed comparison between their two philosophies, thus deepening the understanding of a striking case of intellectual affinity, which has been recognised by many but studied by few.
The Enigma of the Will: Sade's Psychology of Evil. Janus Head 2009, 11 (2), 365- 401.
Janus Head, 2009
Scholars have traditionally taken the Marquis de Sade to he a straightforward advocate of immoral hedonism. Without rejecting outright this view, I argue that Sade also presents a theory of the psychology of pleasure, placing him amongst the more insightful psychological thinkers of the late 18th century. This paper outlines Sades description of the immoral will, in particular his account of how an agent can come to enjoy the humiliation, torture and murder of others. I argue for thefollowing claims: firstly, that Sade, perhaps despite himself, suggests that the sadistic will is patholo^cal; secondly, that Sades work gives a far less flattering view of the sadistic will than is commonly supposed.