(p.41) What about religious consciousness, what is the status of our religious consciousness, in what respect can this religious consciousness effectively account for what we are? Feuerbach represented exactly the summit of this form of analysis focused on these categories of Judeo-Christianity and paganism,13 and then the evolution takes place in exactly the opposite direction to that of the French. That is to say, through Marx and a certain number of others in German socialism, it is the economic categories, notably those of capitalism, that finally prevailed in this selfanalysis of the West. And that is why it may be thought...

(p.126) On the basis of this general theory of the ends of marriage, Xenophon, through the speech he gives to Ischomachus, defines the responsibility of the two sexes in this house, this community, this household that they form. For the man, in particular, it is a matter of working outside, in the fields, in the properties, concerning himself with life with his fellow citizens.9 And then, for the woman, it will be a matter—her body is formed for this—of feeding the children and staying at home to mind the provisions.10 The text ends with a completely classical comparison with the bee...

(p.135) Aristotle says that the relationship of philia between man and wife is intense, strong, and inclines the man towards the woman and woman to the man [much] more than relationships of comradeship or shared citizenship. And he explains why this relationship between man and woman is particularly intense, more intense than political relationships. If this relationship is so strong, he says, it is first of all because it is useful, because man and wife can continuously provide mutual assistance, that they can divide up the work of the household between them. From this utility in the distribution of work, this...

(p.216) And how will Pliny console himself in this tormenting experience of desire? Well, he says, I can console myself only by going to the forum, by pleading, and by continuing my judicial and political activities. Imagine, he says ending his letter, what my life is when I have to seek rest in work (requies in labore) and comfort in cares.26 This idea that he will seek consolation in work and the cares of public life is interesting because one sees then that this letter, so with all the analysis of desiderium, of torture, and so on,* is exactly the opposite...