This Chapter addresses the second part of Lacan’s critique of Kant’s famous apologia of the gallo... more This Chapter addresses the second part of Lacan’s critique of Kant’s famous apologia of the gallows in the Critique of Practical Reason, as it is presented in Section 10 of his essay ‘Kant with Sade’. Nobus explains how Lacan exposes the fallacies of Kant’s argument that rational beings will always choose life over lust, on the basis of Sade’s own life-history and various reflections concerning human rights, freedom of thought, self-governance and courtly love. Clarifying Lacan’s references and allusions, Nobus shows how Lacan disagrees with Kant when it comes to the status of the (moral) Law, and how in Lacan’s conception of the Law the latter is always associated with desire.
Nobus elucidates how, in the third section of his essay ‘Kant with Sade’, Lacan arrives at the co... more Nobus elucidates how, in the third section of his essay ‘Kant with Sade’, Lacan arrives at the conclusion that Kant’s categorical imperative returns as an ethical maxim in the philosophical disquisitions of Sade’s libertine heroes. The differences and similarities between Sade’s and Kant’s imperative are examined, and Nobus explains why Lacan is confident to assert that Sade’s libertines are more honest than Kant when it comes to articulating their ethical system. The Chapter also introduces and explains two key terms in Lacan’s reading of Kant and Sade: the (divided) subject and the Other.
This Chapter focuses on the seventh section of Lacan’s essay ‘Kant with Sade’, in which Lacan rec... more This Chapter focuses on the seventh section of Lacan’s essay ‘Kant with Sade’, in which Lacan reconsiders the elements of the Sadean fantasy in terms of Freud’s controversial concept of the death drive, and in which he also explores the relevance of the classic opposition between sadism and masochism. Nobus explains why Lacan refuses to take the Sadean fantasy as a blueprint for Sade’s own mental economy, and what it means for Sade not to have been duped by his (literary) fantasy. In addition, he extends Lacan’s discussion of the object as object (cause) of desire, and he opens up a new perspective on the vexed issue of the relationship between creative writers and their written creations.
Section 8 of Lacan’s ‘Kant with Sade’ is entirely devoted to the construction of what Nobus desig... more Section 8 of Lacan’s ‘Kant with Sade’ is entirely devoted to the construction of what Nobus designates as ‘Sade’s practical reason’. In this Chapter, all the elements of Lacan’s second schema are explained, and it is demonstrated how this second schema is not the inverse of the first schema—as it appears in Section 6 of the essay—but rather a quarter turn with an additional twist. Most crucially, this Chapter shows how Lacan situates Sade’s libertine novels in the place of the object (cause) of desire, and how Sade’s practical reason should not be judged in light of the contents of his libertine novels, but rather on the basis of a critical assessment of his relationship with his own writing. Nobus argues that Lacan is not at all interested in offering a psycho-biographical reading of Sade, but primarily in the status and function of writing as an object of desire in the mental economy of the writer.
This Chapter addresses the second part of Lacan’s critique of Kant’s famous apologia of the gallo... more This Chapter addresses the second part of Lacan’s critique of Kant’s famous apologia of the gallows in the Critique of Practical Reason, as it is presented in Section 10 of his essay ‘Kant with Sade’. Nobus explains how Lacan exposes the fallacies of Kant’s argument that rational beings will always choose life over lust, on the basis of Sade’s own life-history and various reflections concerning human rights, freedom of thought, self-governance and courtly love. Clarifying Lacan’s references and allusions, Nobus shows how Lacan disagrees with Kant when it comes to the status of the (moral) Law, and how in Lacan’s conception of the Law the latter is always associated with desire.
Nobus elucidates how, in the third section of his essay ‘Kant with Sade’, Lacan arrives at the co... more Nobus elucidates how, in the third section of his essay ‘Kant with Sade’, Lacan arrives at the conclusion that Kant’s categorical imperative returns as an ethical maxim in the philosophical disquisitions of Sade’s libertine heroes. The differences and similarities between Sade’s and Kant’s imperative are examined, and Nobus explains why Lacan is confident to assert that Sade’s libertines are more honest than Kant when it comes to articulating their ethical system. The Chapter also introduces and explains two key terms in Lacan’s reading of Kant and Sade: the (divided) subject and the Other.
This Chapter focuses on the seventh section of Lacan’s essay ‘Kant with Sade’, in which Lacan rec... more This Chapter focuses on the seventh section of Lacan’s essay ‘Kant with Sade’, in which Lacan reconsiders the elements of the Sadean fantasy in terms of Freud’s controversial concept of the death drive, and in which he also explores the relevance of the classic opposition between sadism and masochism. Nobus explains why Lacan refuses to take the Sadean fantasy as a blueprint for Sade’s own mental economy, and what it means for Sade not to have been duped by his (literary) fantasy. In addition, he extends Lacan’s discussion of the object as object (cause) of desire, and he opens up a new perspective on the vexed issue of the relationship between creative writers and their written creations.
Section 8 of Lacan’s ‘Kant with Sade’ is entirely devoted to the construction of what Nobus desig... more Section 8 of Lacan’s ‘Kant with Sade’ is entirely devoted to the construction of what Nobus designates as ‘Sade’s practical reason’. In this Chapter, all the elements of Lacan’s second schema are explained, and it is demonstrated how this second schema is not the inverse of the first schema—as it appears in Section 6 of the essay—but rather a quarter turn with an additional twist. Most crucially, this Chapter shows how Lacan situates Sade’s libertine novels in the place of the object (cause) of desire, and how Sade’s practical reason should not be judged in light of the contents of his libertine novels, but rather on the basis of a critical assessment of his relationship with his own writing. Nobus argues that Lacan is not at all interested in offering a psycho-biographical reading of Sade, but primarily in the status and function of writing as an object of desire in the mental economy of the writer.
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