The 'immoral' morality: De Sade, hedonism and the 'Libertine'

 

@alperenzl

 

He was a 'Libertine', describing plain hedonism and hedonism at the most extreme level in his books, even describing it in disturbing detail. So what is Libertine?

 

Libertine is a nickname given to those who reject the moral restraints of society and seek sensorial pleasure. Libertines put 'Instinct' and desire, not 'virtue' in the center of the purpose, and for them, if people's want is to maximize their desires, as viewed from a hedonist point of view, these pleasures and instincts need to be maximized. However, they do not need to produce this by intellectual pursuits or by reconciling with the society of the period, they are hedonists who do not care about society.

 

Sade deals with perversion and forbidden love in his own books. This was a deviation from the line of modernism, in the modernist era, which was always understood as a line towards a higher justice, morality and freedom, Sade was the one who broke this line (in a Modernist definition) of 'morality' and 'higher justice'. He had already explained the reason for the discomfort and hedonistic extremism in his books, with the desire to be contrary to the moral understanding of the society and questioning. In fact, De Sade does not completely exclude or reject 'virtue', and even takes pity on 'virtuous' people in what he writes.

 

While Dorgeville treats poor Cécile with affection, Cécile cheats on her and plans to kill her, at the end of the story Dorgeville dies of the grief of being cheated on. A person who reads De Sade rethinks his environment because every virtuous person loses in his stories.

 

"...woe, a thousand times woe to the unfortunate, who in such desolation knows neither rules nor religion, revels in crime and cares only for passions, and is at the mercy of a lecherous who knows no other measure than the imperial laws of his disgusting lust games!..."

 

 

“Friendship… Fairness? There is none of these here, my dear girl; Here you will find nothing but egoism, cruelty, immorality, and the utmost disbelief...”

 

In his writings, we can generally understand his philosophy in two typologies. Someone is a 'hedonist', this type does not try to adapt to any society, has no moral limitations, and is purely after pleasure, only after sensory pleasure, and these people always win in the end. Sometimes this type is a sadist who takes pleasure in hurting the other person while he seeks pleasure without harming the other person. Sade gave its name to sadism with this type. On the other hand, there are 'virtuous' people w
ho have moral concerns and who generally dominate spirituality. Although he seems to be on the side of the virtuous in his plain writings, they always lose.

 

“Believe me and try to change your tastes as your beauty allows, throw away your imaginary patience; virtue is sad and savage.” (Crimes of love)

His moral values, which deviate sharply from humanism and modernism, in a way conform to Nietzsche's idea of ​​'slave' and 'master' morality.

Note: You should think twice when reading Sade's books, even their censored versions are uncomfortable and disgusting for most people. The irony is that most of them are 'best sellers'.