The Metaphysics of De Sade - Entropy, Modality and Quantity

This book present Sade s core metaphysical commitments as a coherent and logical system. It analyses his central ontological principle of entropy and shows that Sade endorsed neither egoism nor materialism but was a forerunner to 19th Century thermodynamics. It then turns to his philosophy of money and finance, including his critique of phenomenology, his axiology, and his attack on theories of expected utility. It concludes by considering the extent to which a normative ethical theory can be salvaged from his otherwise largely deconstructive opus.
The Metaphysics of De Sade is essential reading for all scholars and researchers of early modern philosophy.

List of contents

1: Introduction: On the Necessity of a Sadean Metaphysics.- 2: Sade s Entropic Monism.- 3: Money, Finance and Value in Sade.- 4: Sade s Philosophy of Language.- 5: Conclusion: On the Possibility of a Sadean Ethics.

About the author

Conor Husbands is a UK based philosophical scholar with a broad variety of metaphysical research interests. He has previously published  The Temporality of Determinacy with Palgrave (2022). His other previous publications include Klossowski’s Semotic of Intensity: Time, Language and the Vicious Circle (2020) and Esposito’s temporality of finance: Endogeneity and revisability in derivative transactions (2021). He holds an MPhysPhil in Physics & Philosophy from the University of Oxford.

Product details

• Authors: Conor Husbands
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 22.11.2025
• EAN: 9783032080110
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3208011-0
• No. of pages: 136
• Dimensions: 148 mm x 11 mm x 210 mm
• Weight: 285 g
• Illustrations: VIII, 136 p.
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > Renaissance, Enlightenment; Sprachphilosophie, Philosophy of Language, Wirtschaftstheorie und -philosophie, Ontology, Sade, Philosophie: Metaphysik und Ontologie, Metaphysics, Early Modern Philosophy, Entropy