>>> It's a fact that the human mind evolved from the
>>> animal mind. The animal mind is wholly
>>> unconscious, i.e. it lacks perception of itself.
>>>
>>Bataille? qua Darwin?
>>
>Bataille. Let's see. He liked to deface things,
>right?
(1) I think the notion that the animal mind is lacks perception of itself is Hegelian, as Adorno and Horkheimer make similar speculations to those at the beginning of Bataille's _Theory of Religion_ towards the end of _Dialectic of Enlightenment_. But since I doubt Bataille read Adorno and Horkheimer, my guess would be that the idea comes from their common ancestor.
(2) Isn't the idea that animals lack self-consciousness under attack from, if not refuted by, neuroscientists.
(3) If by "he liked to deface things," you mean that he wrote graffiti such as "Never work!" or "I take my desires for reality because I believe in the reality of my desires" or "Beneath the cobblestones, the beach," then you're confusing Bataille with the Situationists and Pro-Situs. Bataille was a librarian who never would have done committed irresponsible, hooliganish acts.
He just wanted to conduct a human sacrifice.
And judging by the end of _Theory of Religion_, didn't understand what Marx meant by use value or exchange value. -- Curtiss, who is out of sorts because it's Monday and "Blame Canada" from _South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut_ didn't get an Oscar last night.
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