Online research in philosophy

Charles Bernheimer described decadence as a "stimulant that bends thought out of shape, deforming traditional conceptual molds." In this posthumously published work, Bernheimer succeeds in making a critical concept out of this perennially fashionable, rarely understood term. Decadent Subjects is a coherent and moving picture of fin de siècle decadence. Mature, ironic, iconoclastic, and thoughtful, this remarkable collection of essays shows the contradictions of the phenomenon, which is both a condition and a state of mind. In seeking to show why people have failed to give a satisfactory account of the term decadence, Bernheimer argues that we often mistakenly take decadence to represent something concrete, that we see as some sort of agent. His salutary response is to return to those authors and artists whose work constitutes the topos of decadence, rereading key late nineteenth-century authors such as Nietzsche, Zola, Hardy, Wilde, Moreau, and Freud to rediscover the very dynamics of the decadent. Through careful analysis of the literature, art, and music of the fin de siècle including a riveting discussion of the many faces of Salome, Bernheimer leaves us with a fascinating and multidimensional look at decadence, all the more important as we emerge from our own fin de siècle.

Over time our understanding of the 'political' has been progressively shaped by the secular rational calculations of modern European political thought. This paper aims to critique these 'calculations' with reference to crucial moments of departure and flight within western philosophy itself. It concludes by reclaiming fin de siècle radicalism/philosophy as a forgotten instance of empirical-metaphysical hybridity: a form of politics or ethics capable of housing the imperatives of both desire and prayer.

This paper explores the relationship between Eugen Ehrlich's work and other fin de siecle thinkers in order to gain a better understanding of the intellectual and cultural context from which Ehrlich's thought emerged. The starting point of the paper is Venus in Furs, a novella published by Austrian writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch in 1870. Masoch's use of law in Venus in Furs was briefly analyzed by Gilles Deleuze, but Deleuze's analysis ignored the relationship of Masoch's work to general trends in late 19th century legal thought, trends that ultimately also produced Ehrlich's sociology of law. The paper argues that one can read both Venus in Furs and Ehrlich's major work, Fundamental Principles of the Sociology of Law, as expressions of a general 'crisis of reason', evident in many areas of fin de siecle European culture, and specifically as part of the crisis of liberal legal thought. The paper examines several themes present in both Masoch's and Ehrlich's work, such as the critique of the concept of free will and state sovereignty, the contrast between state sanctions and private honor, the use of the exotic as a source of knowledge and the problems associated with the textual representation of reality. It concludes by pointing to similar themes found in other literary and artistic products of fin de siecle culture.