Economies of sacrifice: Recognition,monadism, and alien‐ation∗

Abstract

‘Economies of Sacrifice’ compares Girard's (1987) Hegelian inter‐dividualism to the Cartesian notion of the cogito and the Freudian theory of the unconscious in order to show how the monadic identity position violates the communicative balance of the self‐other bind. By looking at how both these thinkers constitute an identity category through the concept of sacrifice, the paper refers to the Girardian (1986) and Bataillean (1990) theories of violence and recognition in search of an alternative stance that may provide a more balanced view of human sociability. With regard to Bataille's theory of radical difference we can see how the idea which seeks to attack monadic individualism by destroying all identity advocates a principle of amoralism which views equality as ‘the generalisation of expendability’. As such, through reference to the work of Goux (1998) and O'Neill (2000) the article shows how the Bataillean thesis may pre‐empt the emergence of the post‐modern political economy. In light of this realisation the paper looks beyond both the Bataillean attempt to collapse identity, by exposing humanity to the total violence of the state of nature/post‐modern economic system, and the solipsistic theories of Descartes and Freud, which emphasis the centrality of the self at the cost of an acceptance of otherness, and towards Girard's theory of social justice as a communicative attempt to re‐state the importance of Hegelian recognition and human sociability.     

风景的幻象解析

在风景中明心见性或进行形而上追索已成为一种审美惯性,进而影响主体的文化结构和价值立场。在对风景的审美惯性中存在某种惰性,其匿身于风景审美机制的缝隙,成为理解主体化的征兆。风景的审美性在于该实体被化约为符号性主体。这一化约行为剔除了人之属性的复数性,转移了个体存在的被动性,使风景成为抵御复杂现实的一道屏障、一个幻象。而穿越幻象则易使主体丧失稳定的现实感,因此在一定程度上,静态的风景刻画成为最难以拒绝的乌托邦。