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'An aphorism, properly stamped and molded, has not been "deciphered" when it has simply been read; rather one has then to begin its interpretation, for which is required an art of interpretation.' -- Nietzsche, 'On the Genealogy of Morals'

Enlightenment, Sade, Nietzsche, fascism « Previous | |Next »
January 15, 2005

A comment by Ralph Dumain about the 'Juliette or Enlightenment and Morality' chapter in Adorno & Horkheimer's classic text, the Dialectic of Enlightenment, that has some bearing on Jo's previous post. on de Sade. I'll just post the remarks with minimal comment.

Dumain says:

"We soon come to the heart and soul (what an irony) of the chapter: a comparative analysis of Sade and Nietzsche (the bulk of which can be found on pp.96-102). The proto-fascist character of both could not be more obvious. Sade is unmistakably a creature of the Enlightenment. I believe that somewhere Horkheimer and Adorno want to argue that Nietzsche flows from this tradition as well, but here I see only the proto-fascist reaction against it. Now if the linkage is Enlightenment-Sade-Nietzsche-fascism, one could argue that fascism is contained in the seeds of the Enlightenment, but I am not satisfied with the conceptual structure that seems to underlie this system of linkages. The case of Sade, however, surely reveals the underside of Enlightenment, though just why, remains to be adequately clarified. To be sure, Horkheimer and Adorno go some distance. Sade's Juliette is revealed to be a Cartesian dualist (p. 108)! The nature of sexual pleasure enunciated by Juliette and that of pleasure in Sade and Nietzsche generally reveal a dualism between physicality and spirituality, intellect and affect. "Nietzsche recognizes the still mythic quality of all pleasure." [p. 106] This dualism justifies the ideology of cruelty argued by Sade and Nietzsche. It is also seen to be a patriarchal male logic that takes revenge on the weakness of "minorities" (women and Jews are named here) for having the nerve to circumvent their weakness by surviving (pp. 110-1)."

So the linkage, Enlightenment-Sade-Nietzsche-fascism, is being made by Adorno & Horkheimer. This linkage means that one can argue that fascism is contained in the seeds of the Enlightenment.

This interpretation implies that irrationalism (lebensphilosophie) is blamed on the dark side of the positivistic Enlightenment, rather than arguing that German fascism arises out of lebensphilosophie as the other of reason. I've never bought the latter intepretation.

Dumain says that means the Enlightenment's philosophy of instrumental reason, calculation, utility and domination of inner and outer nature was evident in de Sade's highly organized tortures and orgies. And it means that the German disaster of fascism was the outcome of a link between reason, myth, and domination implicit in the German Enlightenment thought since Kant and Hegel.

I'm not sure I buy that interpretation re Hegel but there it goes.

| Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 10:05 PM | | Comments (0)
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