Raj utracony Georgesa Bataille`a. Kilka słów o zbytku

In this article I present and discuss the concept of excess (excès), as it is presented in philosophical works of Georges Bataille`s, one of the most outstanding personalities in contemporary philosophy. The purpose of this study is to examine three different perspectives – metaphysical, “economic” and religious (ethical) – to determine the function of excess which seems to… exceed all of them. The French philosopher believes that nothing but excess prevents us from completing any system, philosophical or other, that could express it. He argues that excess is a gap in being, enabling life that cannot be reduced to the level of things. Bataille refers to an ancient Indian institution of the north-west of America, called potlatch, to show that the true joy of life and personal respect emerges among people open to giving, losing or wasting property. Through the dissipation of wealth and erotic power, a man appeared to be free and sovereign. In Bataille, the analysis of the concepts of excess or expenditure (dépense) serves, among other things, to launch his critique of the political (restricted) economy, by which he expresses the longing for time lost forever.