"Turds Fallen from the Devil's Anus" (was Re: Kant, Christianity, and Free Will)

kenneth.mackendrick at utoronto.ca kenneth.mackendrick at utoronto.ca
Tue Dec 28 15:13:38 PST 1999


On Tue, 28 Dec 1999 17:30:54 -0500 Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> wrote:


> The "exalted representation of evil," as in Lacan's quotation from Luther:
"You are all turds fallen from the Devil's anus." Lacan offers two models of transcendence": the purification of desire into a pure desire for knowledge, "beyond fear and pity" (Socrates who kills himself to save truth); and the acceptance of one's "unbeing" and "subjective destitution."


> If such models are attractive to you, why not Zen?

Zen is a cultural, political and social philosophy ("religion") ground in specific social and political praxis, Lacan's mirror stage and subsequent arguments are ground in a theory of psychological / cognitivie development - the two aren't comparable. One does not "accept" the truth of Lacan, one makes arguments for and against his propositions. Comparing Zen and psychoanalysis rests on a complete confusion of both.

ken



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