ENGLISH

Eros and Ethics: Reading Jacques Lacan’s Seminar VII

Book information

Publisher
State University of New York Press
Year
2009
ISBN
1438426097, 9781438426099, 9781441615787
LCC
BF173.L1463 K4713 2009
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
996 kB (1020299 bytes)
Series
Insinuations: Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Literature
Pages
345\355
Topic
Literature Literary
Scanned
yes
Time added
2011-06-04 13:46:07

Description

In Eros and Ethics, Marc De Kesel patiently exposes the lines of thought underlying Jacques Lacan’s often complex and cryptic reasoning regarding ethics and morality in his seventh seminar, The Ethics of Psychoanalysis (1959–1960). In this seminar, Lacan arrives at a rather perplexing conclusion: that which, over the ages, has been supposed to be “the supreme good” is in fact nothing but “radical evil”; therefore, the ultimate goal of human desire is not happiness and self-realization, but destruction and death. And yet, Lacan hastens to add, the morality based on this conclusion is far from being melancholic or tragic. Rather, it results in an encouraging ethics that for the first time in history gives full moral weight to the erotic. De Kesel’s close reading uncovers the real scope of Lacan’s criticism regarding the moralizing ethics of our time, and is one of the rare books that gives the reader full access to the letter of the Lacanian text.

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