The unfinished system of nonknowledge / Georges Bataille ; edited and with an introduction by Stuart Kendall ; translated by Michelle Kendall and Stuart Kendall.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bataille, Georges, 1897-1962.

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Kendall, Stuart.

Standardized Title:

Works. 2001

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Philosophy.

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Physical Description:

xliv, 305 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2001]

Language Note:

Translated from the French.

Summary:

A deft reconstruction of what Georges Bataille envisioned as a continuation of his work La Somme Atheologique, this volume brings together the writings of one of the foremost French thinkers of the twentieth century on the central topic of his oeuvre. These essays, aphorisms, notes, and lectures on nonknowledge, sovereignty, and sacrifice clarify and extend Bataille's radical theology, his philosophy of history, and his ecstatic method of meditation. As laid out in Bataille's notebooks, editor Stuart Kendall assembles the fragments that Bataille anticipated collecting for his summa. Kendall's introduction offers a clear picture of the author's overall project, its historical and biographical context, and the place of these works within it. The "system" that emerges is "atheology," understood as a study of the effects of nonknowledge. At the other side of realism, Bataille pushes language to its silent end. And yet, writing toward the ruin of language, in search of words that slip from their meanings, Bataille uses language -- and the discourses of theology, philosophy, and literature -- against itself to return us to ourselves, endlessly. The system against systems is in fact systematic, using systems and depending on discourses to achieve its own ends -- the end of systematic thought.

Contents:

Editor's Introduction: Unlimited Assemblage / Stuart Kendall xi

Socratic College 5

Nietzsche's Laughter 18

Discussion on Sin 26

Method of Meditation 77

The Absence of God 103

Initial Postulate 105

The Consequences of Nonknowledge 111

The Teaching of Death 119

Nonknowledge and Rebellion 129

Nonknowledge, Laughter, and Tears 133

Aphorisms for the "System" 153

The Sovereign 185

Nonknowledge 196

Post-Scriptum 1953 206

Aphorisms 210

Beyond Seriousness 212

The Congested Planet 221

Pure Happiness 224

Notebook for "Pure Happiness" 236

Outside The Tears of Eros 257.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 275-293) and index.

ISBN:

0816635048

OCLC:

46462625