The Sacred Profane: a Bataillean Rereading of the Problem of Evil: una relectura batailleana del problema del mal

Abstract

This article presents a reading of Georges Bataille’s lecture “The Evil in Platonism and Sadism”. From an analysis that considers both its content and its context, it aims to highlight the importance of this lecture in Bataille’s thought and its impact on the elaboration of a morality that responds to the demands of an era in which the divine is already absent. Its main argument is that the operation carried out by Bataille in the lecture makes it possible to rework the problem of Evil, in opposition to the long tradition of “Platonism” as it is understood by the latter. The article thus seeks to contribute to open new perspectives on a problem that has troubled the entire history of Western philosophy.