ethicsinterconnection between eroticism, madness, and ecstasy. Rādhā is a
paradigm for the human soul searching for God and the highest ecstatic
state in a condition accompanied by incoherent speech, irrational behav-
ior, and painful emotions.
In his theory of religion, George Bataille focuses on the relationship
between eroticism and mysticism. According to Bataille, eroticism is the
conscious search for sensual pleasure in which a person does not gain
anything or become enriched like engaging in work. Eroticism is a realm
of pure play, whose essence is to obey the pull of seduction in response to
passion. Striking one at the center of one’s being, eroticism gives one a
foretaste of continuity, which presupposes a partial dissolution of the per-
son as that person exists in the realm of discontinuity. By participating in
erotic activity, individual beings have their fundamental continuity revealed
to them, which stands in contrast to normal discontinuous existence.
By exposing one’s flesh for others to see, the individual becomes dis-
possessed by its nudity. This nakedness and dispossession of the self are
partially indicative of radical and anti-social aspects of eroticism that
tend to break down established social patterns. Eroticism is also anti-
social by its very nature because it is a solitary activity done in secret
outside the confines of everyday life.
Eroticism must not be confused with an ordinary sexual act or desire.
Eroticism, an aspect of an individual’s inner life, represents a disequilib-
rium that stimulates a person to call their own being into question. With
respect to desire and its object, eroticism is transgressive in the sense that
it is a desire that overcomes taboo. Desire and transgression, a violent
principle that causes chaos, helps to create the apparent insane world of
eroticism. The final sense of eroticism is death, which is opened by the
former. By means of eroticism, death returns a person from their discon-
tinuous way of life to continuity. Some of Bataille’s novels explore the
union of the erotic and death.
Further reading: Bataille (1962, 1991); Hollywood (2002); Kripal (2001); Miller
(1977)
ETHICS
This concept reflects proper rules of conduct recognized as valid by a
particular religious tradition. Ethics also suggests the values and moral
principles related to human conduct and the analysis of such actions.