Artikel

De grenzen van de politieke filosofie van Georges Bataille: enkele opmerkingen aangaande de geschiedenis van La Part Maudite

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Abstract

The frontiers of Georges Bataille's political philosophy. Some remarks on the history of 'La part maudite' - The author wants to find out how George Bataille’s contribution to political philosophy can be summarized. Perusing the content of La part maudite, a book published in 1949, although it was conceived before and during World War Two, he shows in which way Bataille struggled with a major theme of modernity itself. The author of this paper draws a picture of the ’history’ of this theme, and goes back as early as the first decades of the 18th century. Bernard Mandeville, physician, political philosopher, and chroniqueur of early modern life, ’discovered’ the ’wild animal’ deep inside of us all. Bataille ranks with those authors in social and political philosophy who developed this idea. What really is at stake, is the ’curse of modernity’ : unease, desire, order, social control, ’restricted economy’ (utility) and labour. Bataille showed some originality in discussing the ’restricted economy’ as a tool of social control, which disregards passion, violence, and all kinds of waste, reckless expenditure, and extravagance. But in the end, he got overwhelmed by his own arguments, and abandoned his former social critique for an idolatrous defence of debauchery. Although the author of this paper remains critical towards the bataillean ’theory of transgression’, as it was developed by Bataille from 1940 onwards, he nevertheless tries to understand his efforts in discoursing and discussing the theme of the dark side of nature and humanity. In recent political philosophy, it has been said that the analysis of La part maudite can contribute to a better comprehension of the disorder which accompanies the development of a world-wide global society. The author of this paper, however, doubts this particular point of view.

How to Cite:

Commers, R., (1995) “De grenzen van de politieke filosofie van Georges Bataille: enkele opmerkingen aangaande de geschiedenis van La Part Maudite”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 40(4), 361–386. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.95214