Spinoza with Luther? Desire and the Problem of Evil in Lacan’s Seminar on the Ethics of Psychoanalysis

Abstract

In this article Lacan’s seminar VII is portrayed as a text on desire and the problem of evil that combines Spinozian with Lutheran insights. Spinozian are: desire as the essence of man; ethics without a moralizing message; the disenchantment of anthropocentricism; the rejection of a possible natural knowledge of the proper distinction between good and evil; and the recognition of immanent causality. Luther is presented by Lacan as the first theologian to articulate the modern crisis in ethics: the problem of evil in his concept of sin as the desire for those objects that make one suffer; the emphasis on the fundamentally bad character of man’s relationships; the recognition of hatred being the fundamental human passion and the foundation of the Law. Reading this seminar from this perspective not only draws attention to the fundamental problems psychoanalysis addresses, but also contributes to clarifying the relation between psychoanalysis and Judeo-Christian tradition.

Keywords:

• Desire Keyword: Desire
• Ethics Keyword: Ethics
• evil Keyword: evil
• Lacan Keyword: Lacan
• Luther Keyword: Luther
• Spinoza Keyword: Spinoza

How to Cite:

Rights: Incopyright