Proefschrift : Lettres : Leiden : 1983.

In this thesis I explore the attempt by Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche and Georges Bataille to confront the problem of the meaning and value of existence. I consider each of these philosophers as involved in the development of a stream of post-Kantian thought that, following Nick Land, I call libidinal pessimism. Libidinal pessimism is both the metaphysical principle of the primacy of willing as the fundamental reality, and the moral principle that the greatest value to our existence is to be found in liberating willing from the small-scale concern of the good of individual beings. Each sees a crisis in the dominance of optimism: the belief that willing is commensurate with the good of individuated beings. They attack the dominance of optimism not just in the history of philosophy, but also in the values that dominate the culture at large. My contention is that these thinkers were provoked to think about the meaning and value of existence by encountering the tragic sublime: a pleasure in the destruction of the happiness of the individual. This affective intensity provokes them to the realisation that our will is not directed towards the happiness of the individual, contra the dominant values of our culture. Yet since the tragic sublime is non-conceptual, its implications for the meaning and the value of existence are not explicit. The task of philosophy is to conceptualise this affective intensity to specify the inadequacy of the values that dominate the age, and to assert the values that can liberate human possibility from its current wretchedness to a new glory. To structure the thinking of these philosophers on the problem of existence, I analyse their thinking using the following logical model: 1) specifying what they regard as the predominant symptoms of the problem regarding existence, our current wretchedness; 2) their diagnosis of the source of this wretchedness in the dominant optimism; 3) their pronouncement of the solution to this problem, through liberating willing from the small-scale; and 4) their prescription for how to overcome this problem, for how the tragic sublime can liberate willing from the fetters of a concern for individuated beings. In elaborating upon the thinking of these philosophers as a definite stream of post- Kantian thought, I also highlight how each engages with the thinking of the earlier of the philosophers. I explore how Schopenhauer's philosophy develops out of Kant's philosophy, how Nietzsche develops the thinking of Schopenhauer and how Bataille develops the problematics of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Through this I attempt to explore how these three philosophers mark a development in the attempt to conceptualise the tragic sublime as the key to address the problem of the meaning and value of existence.

In this thesis I explore the attempt by Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche and Georges Bataille to confront the problem of the meaning and value of existence. I consider each of these philosophers as involved in the development of a stream of post-Kantian thought that, following Nick Land, I call libidinal pessimism. Libidinal pessimism is both the metaphysical principle of the primacy of willing as the fundamental reality, and the moral principle that the greatest value to our existence is to be found in liberating willing from the small-scale concern of the good of individual beings. Each sees a crisis in the dominance of optimism: the belief that willing is commensurate with the good of individuated beings. They attack the dominance of optimism not just in the history of philosophy, but also in the values that dominate the culture at large. My contention is that these thinkers were provoked to think about the meaning and value of existence by encountering the tragic sublime: a pleasure in the destruction of the happiness of the individual. This affective intensity provokes them to the realisation that our will is not directed towards the happiness of the individual, contra the dominant values of our culture. Yet since the tragic sublime is non-conceptual, its implications for the meaning and the value of existence are not explicit. The task of philosophy is to conceptualise this affective intensity to specify the inadequacy of the values that dominate the age, and to assert the values that can liberate human possibility from its current wretchedness to a new glory. To structure the thinking of these philosophers on the problem of existence, I analyse their thinking using the following logical model: 1) specifying what they regard as the predominant symptoms of the problem regarding existence, our current wretchedness; 2) their diagnosis of the source of this wretchedness in the dominant optimism; 3) their pronouncement of the solution to this problem, through liberating willing from the small-scale; and 4) their prescription for how to overcome this problem, for how the tragic sublime can liberate willing from the fetters of a concern for individuated beings. In elaborating upon the thinking of these philosophers as a definite stream of post- Kantian thought, I also highlight how each engages with the thinking of the earlier of the philosophers. I explore how Schopenhauer's philosophy develops out of Kant's philosophy, how Nietzsche develops the thinking of Schopenhauer and how Bataille develops the problematics of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Through this I attempt to explore how these three philosophers mark a development in the attempt to conceptualise the tragic sublime as the key to address the problem of the meaning and value of existence.

Texte remanié de: Diss.--Fakultät Geschichts-, Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften--Universität Stuttgart, 2000. Titre de soutenance : "Entscheidende Faktoren" in Analysen der "Invasion" 1944. Zur Entstehung und Verwendung dezisionistischer und ökonomisch-deterministischer Erklärungsmuster. / Bibliogr. p. 239-269.

Ce travail de recherche étudie la déstabilisation de la hiérarchie entre l’abject et le sublime dans les oeuvres [textes de théâtre, récits et essais] de Georges Bataille, Jean Genet et Samuel Beckett. L’étude part de la constatation effectuée par Jean-François Lyotard selon laquelle la question du sublime se pose à chaque fois qu’une crise de la représentation a lieu [âges de la poétique et de l’esthétique, âge actuel] afin de confronter l’art à ce qui l’excède, lui permettant ainsi de se renouveler. Elle montre que la notion de sublime tend également, lors de chacune de ses réapparitions, à se rapprocher davantage de la notion d’abject, sensée lui être diamétralement opposée. C’est ce qui apparaît dans les oeuvres de Bataille, Genet et Beckett où la doxa qui organise le monde et les valeurs à partir de paradigmes purement antithétiques est déconstruite. Cette redéfinition du rapport entre les notions est analysée aux niveaux stylistique, poétique, esthétique, empirique, psychanalytique, moral et éthique. Un chapitre est dédié à l’étude du phénomène dans l’oeuvre de chaque auteur. Bataille remet en question la hiérarchie entre les notions en définissant un nouvel humanisme « noir » – ou « hyperhumanisme » – grâce à un terrorisme notionnel et littéraire pensant la communication comme un sacrifice. Genet se fait le chantre de l’abject en empruntant les moyens du sublime et en retournant chaque notion en son contraire, au point de ne plus pouvoir les distinguer. Beckett met en place une poétique de la Vanité, déclinée sur les modes classique et postmoderne, permettant de rendre compte de l’inhérente proximité et complémentarité des notions grandissant à travers les siècles. À défaut de proposer une solution au problème posé par Lyotard, ce travail montre la nécessité de prendre en considération le lien unissant le sublime à l’abject lors de toute tentative de renouvellement artistique. / This thesis examines the destabilization of the hierarchical relationship between the abject and the sublime in the works [i.e. plays, prose narratives and essays] of Georges Bataille, Jean Genet and Samuel Beckett. Its starting point is Jean-François Lyotard’s observation that the question of the sublime is raised each time there is a crisis within representation [in the age of poetics, of aesthetics, or in the present day] in order to set up a confrontation between art and that which exceeds art, permitting art to renew itself. Subsequently, it is argued that whenever the notion of the sublime appears it moves in proximity to – and sometimes merges with – its opposite : the abject. This is the case in the works of Bataille, Genet and Beckett, in which a doxa that understands the world and organizes values in terms of purely antithetical paradigms is deconstructed. This redefinition of the relationship between the sublime and the abject is analysed on a poetic, stylistic, aesthetic, empirical, psychoanalytic, moral and ethical level in the work of each author. Bataille can be said to interrogate the hierarchical separation of the two notions in defining a new « black » humanism – or « hyperhumanism » – through the use of a notional and literary terrorism which conceives of communication as sacrifice. Genet makes himself the eulogist of the abject in using sublime means and by changing each notion into its opposite, to the point that it is impossible to distinguish between the two. Beckett introduces a poetics of the Vanitas, understood in both its classical and its postmodern aspects, revealing the developing proximity and complementarity of the two notions. Rather than provide definite answers to the questions Lyotard poses, this thesis demonstrates the need to consider the links and affinities between the sublime and the abject in all attempts at artistic renewal.

No description available.

No description available.

Texte remanié de: Diss., 1999. / Bibliogr. p. 365-374.

Tesis--Madrid--Universidad complutense, 2000. Titre de soutenance : Guerra e ideología en la España medieval : cultura y actitudes históricas ante el giro de principios del siglo XIII. Batallas de las Navas de Tolosa (1212) y Muret (1213). / Bibliogr. p. 645-715.

No description available.