Sadean
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Sadean or sadeian means pertaining to the Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) or his writings -- particularly sadomasochistic erotica -- or his philosophies. It differs from the adjective sadistic in that the latter is only used mainly in sexual contexts.
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Materialism
Sade freely borrowed from the French materialists of the Enlightenment. In Juliette he advises Juliette to "nourish herself with the grand principles of Spinoza, Vanini and the author of The System of Nature."[1], tr. JWG.
He also famously wrote to his wife from prison that d’Holbach’s The System of Nature is at the basis of his philosophy and that he would defend “jusqu’au martir s’il le fallait” [to martyrdom if necessary] [more...] .
Innate cruelty
The term "Sadean" is most commonly used to denote an anti-Rousseauist and anti-"Back to nature!" attitude, in the sense that it believes in the innate cruelty of man. See "Cruelty, very far from being a vice, is the first sentiment Nature injects in us all."
Precursor to Nietzsche
Pierre Klossowski, in his 1947 book Sade My Neighbor analyzes Sade's philosophy as a precursor of Nietzsche's nihilism, negating both Christian values and the materialism of the Enlightenment.
See also
- Sade's atheism
- Sade and psychopathology
- Sade and Rousseau
- Philosophy in the Bedroom
- Sadeian women
- The Sadeian Woman and the Ideology of Pornography
