Philosophy in the boudoir

Philosophy in the immoral boudoir or teachers is a work of the Marquis de Sade, published in 1795. The subtitle is Dialogs intended for the education of the young young ladies .

Summary

The work is presented in the form of a series of dialogs recalling the erotic and sexual education of a 15 year old young girl. A libertine, Mrs. of Saint-Angel, wants to initiate Eugenie “in the most secret mysteries of Venus”. It is helped in that by her brother (the knight of Mirvel), a friend of his brother (Dolmancé) and by his gardener (Augustin).

Study of work

A teaching in alternation

The book is not only one long description of gestures and actions. It is built (especially the third dialog) on alternation between philosophical essay and concrete application of the evoked precepts. The theory alternates with the practice.

The title of the book evokes already this duality since the boudoir is a small room generally laid out between the room and the living room, i.e., between the part devoted to frolicking in love and the part devoted to the conversation.

The theory

Beyond the crudeness of the text and his topic libertine, one finds there a diatribe philosophical, almost a call to the weapons, clarifying the ideas of the Marquis compared to the Liberté, the Religion, with the Monarchie, and the Mœurs. Heading “ French, still an effort if you want to be republican ”, the public call which fits before the sixth dialog presents the same ideas which appear in the eleven “ political opuscules ” of Sade published between 1790 and 1799.

The reflection of Sade fits perfectly in that of its time. It indeed prolongs the philosophical debates on the concept of Nature and on the role of the company compared to this Nature like on the influence of the latter on the human behaviors.

The reflection libertine exposed by Sade leaves the principle that Nature governs the universe and its components. God exists only in the spirit of the men. He is only one idol among others. This return to Nature as only supreme principle seems to draw its origins in ancient philosophy. This assumption is consolidated by the booklet of the fifth dialog where it is in particular defended the Athéisme. The only tolerated worship would be a return to the Roman Paganisme: " Since we believe a worship necessary, let us imitate that of Romains".

Nature being the only engine of the world, all that follows its principles comes from there to be legitimated by it. The sex, selfishness, violence are as many demonstrations as one finds in the nature and of manifestations of Nature in the man, and therefore, they can be legitimated as being " naturelles" , beyond the Well and of the Badly. Indeed, these constructions morals (the Good and Evil) are directly aimed by this argumentation. Not existing in Nature, they cannot be taken as bases of our actions. Nature must remain our only model. " nature, also dictating defects and virtues to us, because of our organization, or more philosophically still, because of the need that it has one and other, which it inspires to us would become a very dubious measurement to regulate with precision what is well or what is badly ".

From this principle, the Company loses obviously all its rights. Its rules, its laws come to suppress our natural dashes. They go against Nature and are thus not tolerable. " It is an alarming injustice to require that men of unequal natures yield with equal laws: what goes for one does not go to the other ".

It then becomes interesting to oppose the reflection of Sade to that of Thomas Hobbes (English philosopher). This one, in Léviathan (1651), share of the principle that the men with the state of nature have the same desires and that these desires relate to the same objects. It from of deduced whereas a state of permanent conflict between the men would be inescapable. According to him, the Company would allow to contain this conflict by the introduction of common rules, the laws, and in that, to exceed the state of nature. One sees well here all that Sade owes with the reflection of Hobbes. It takes again the starting postulate of it but refuses to exceed it. The man must, according to him, to remain in this state of nature since Nature remains the only supreme force with work in the world. It is for him inconceivable to establish this Léviathan which is the State: " the laws can be so soft, in if small number, that all the men, of some character who they are, can there plier".

Practice

Works of Sade acquired a sulfurous reputation. Rightly. The reflection presented higher is used to the characters libertines to legitimate all their desires and more particularly their sexual desires. Since they are natural, why oppose them? Long descriptions of this frolicking, spread out according to a process of gradation, thus come to stop and put in practice the philosophical statements previously exposed. The Sodomy is a crime? Not, Dolmancé answers, since it is a desire, it is thus natural. Then let us put it in practice in order to initiate the Eugenie young person who is used of alibi and privileged ground with this initiation. Such is, to simplify, the recurring movement which rate/rhythm work, and particularly the third dialog. We will note in the passing the reversal operated in connection with the Sodomie. Condemned for its non-naturel character (since useless to the reproduction), it becomes in the argumentation of the libertines, the symbol even of the naturalness and thus loses any condemned raison d'être.

But what there is striking with the reading of this frolicking, it is the length of those and the concern of the detail which animates their actions. Certain passages become courses of anatomy applied about it. Each part of the body reserved for the pleasures is described and detailed in its constitution and, of course, its functions.

A play of language

Another characteristic of this work and the co-education of the registers used. The characters, resulting from the high society, express themselves primarily in a supported language, and this, even with most extremely of their frolicking. However, the transgression of the values morals is accompanied by a transgression of the language.

The concrete terms succeed the abstract concepts in order to describe the parts of the body and frolicking: “the foutre, sodomy, saw it (the penis)” are only examples among good of others. In what is connected with a will of realism, Sade, with the image of a Molière for example, seeks to return the sociolecte of the gardener: “mam' saddle (...), I see it… tatiguai! ”.

The report/ratio intimates which links the philosophical language with the talks is clear. Logic libertine pushed until the end and the transgressions morals which it implies cannot be achieved that within the framework of a language which undergoes it also such a transgression. “One of my great pleasures is to swear God when I bandage. It seems to me that my spirit, then thousand times more exalté, detests and mistakes well better this disgusting dream… ”.

By this transgression, Sade seeks to attack the reader, to maltreat it as its characters maltreat their victims. But by continuing his reading, the reader is done accessory to the transgressions of the author like the Eugenie young person ends up becoming the accomplice of Mrs. of Saint-Angel and Dolmancé.

A theatrical book

One of the principal characteristics of this book is its proximity with the theatrical kind. It should be noted first of all that it is appeared as dialogs between the various characters. However, the dialog is a very frequent form at the 18th century and very largely codified. But the many indications on the movements point out Didascalie S, the cutting of the text in several dialogs can evoke the acts of a Play and, moreover, the progression of the history within these dialogs reinforces this impression. The two first correspond to an exposure (of the characters, their bonds, their intentions); the third and the fifth constitute the heart of the action while the seventh brings the outcome.

The three units are also respected since the action proceeds in only one place (the boudoir), during one afternoon and that it is single (the initiation of Eugenie).

Still let us note that the writing of the Marquis de Sade convenes primarily the directions of the Ouïe (by the dialogs) and of the Vue. Indeed, the gestures and the movements of the characters take a paramount place at the time of the application of the precepts libertines. This spatialization of the bodies seems, there still, to confirm the theatricalness of this account.

Problems raised by work

Logic libertine here is pushed so much until its crueler ends than it becomes even possible to wonder about the degree of sincerity of Sade. Does he sincerely seek to promote this naturalism libertine? The booklet seriously aims it at influencing " the new Code that one prepares us " ? or does he seek to develop a reflection which would support it? The question deserves to be posed even if it seems difficult to bring a clear answer there.

Let us note to finish the limits of this reflection: while founding Nature like engine and main cause of all the inclinations of the men, Sade comes from there to deny the free-referee and by doing this to deny the freedom which he claims to preach. With less, of course, that Nature is only one alibi with this insatiable thirst for freedom, an idol moreover not having for goal but legitimation of the Anarchie.

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