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Unfinished System Of Nonknowledge Paperback – November 15, 2004

by Georges Bataille (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 10 ratings
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A deft reconstruction of what Georges Bataille envisioned as a continuation of his work La Somme Athéologique, this volume brings together the writings of one of the foremost French thinkers of the twentieth century on the central topic of his oeuvre. Gathering Bataille’s most intimate writings, 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. Following Bataille’s lead, as laid out in his 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 from these articles, notes, and lectures is "atheology," understood as a study of the effects of nonknowledge. At the other side of realism, Bataille’s writing in La Somme 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.A medievalist librarian by training, Georges Bataille (1897–1962) was active in the French intellectual scene from the 1920s through the 1950s. He founded the journal Critique and was a member of the Acéphale group and the Collège de Sociologie. Among his works available in English are Visions of Excess (Minnesota, 1985), Tears of Eros (1989), and Erotism (1990).
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  1. Print length
    352 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Univ Of Minnesota Press
  4. Publication date
    November 15, 2004
  5. Dimensions
    5.88 x 1.1 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0816635056
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0816635054
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

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"Georges Bataille is one of the most original and unsettling of those thinkers who, in the wake of Sade and Nietzsche, have confronted the possibility of thought in a world that has lost its myth of transcendence."

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Univ Of Minnesota Press; First Edition (November 15, 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0816635056
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0816635054
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.88 x 1.1 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 10 ratings

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  1. Stuart Kendall

    Stuart Kendall

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    Stuart Kendall is a writer, editor, and translator working at the intersections of continental philosophy, environmental humanities, media, and design.

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  2. Georges Bataille

    Georges Bataille

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    Georges Bataille was born in Billom, France, in 1897. He was a librarian by profession. Also a philosopher, novelist, and critic, he was founder of the College of Sociology. Bataille died in 1962.

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  • Jennifer F Armstrong
    5.0 out of 5 stars A new paradigm
    Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    When we have the attitude that the important things are already known, we stop learning. This know-it-all attitude seems to be going out of fashion, now, but it was once held that not to know virtually all there is to know was shameful. One had to know simply everything. Or one had to bluff one's way through. I sense a change in paradigm nowadays.

    In terms of developing one's understanding, I recommend Bataille's THE UNFINISHED SYSTEM OF NONKNOWLEDGE. He speaks in Hegelian terms of a Nietzsche agenda. One must first negate the philosophy of the decline in oneself, which is Christian morality. This is done through "sinning". After this, one negates the negation. That is, it disappears like a pebble into a pond and is no more. Perhaps it's not so much this progam of his that is interesting, but the way Bataille humanizes and relativizes the meaning of the search for knowledge. Authoritarian systems seems to lose their power under this new light. For instance, people professing absolute knowledge are resting in the complacency of their sufficiency. With this remapping of the system of knowledge, you can see they have a long way to go. They, however, think they are on the summit. I had, for instance, one troll recently proclaim that Luce Irigaray had made an 'objectively stupid statement'. It was clear this idiot had not thought through the meanings of objectivity and stupidity. Neither of these are so simple as the unexamined mind would posit. Objectivity is more closely realized in the awareness that knowledge does not and cannot get you everywhere you want to be. Nonknowledge is satiety -- although it can be premature. These are not dialectical opposites, but dialectical counterparts.
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  • Jolanta Klyszcz Gasz
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Spectacular text, powerful, albeit very difficult reading.
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