Abstract:
The essay discusses the work of de Sade regarding the rational ethic of Kant. Both, converses as convergences of these two imperatives are worked out. Referring to psychoanalytic theory, de Sade 's discourse can be understood as representing the phantasm of a violent and fundamental desire. A discussion of border violations and disregards of the other leads to the drawing up of ethical aspects of desire and social (inter-)action. Developing a rational paradigm of violence by relating de Sade to Kant, criminological and psychological sciences are interrogated concerning their relationship to reason and to violence as well as concerning their inherent dialectic switch into a socio-technological reductionism.