The first, sixth, seventh, and eighth essays are translated from La Culture des Idées; the ninth is from the Promenades Philosophiques; and the remaining essays are from Le Chemin de Velours.

Release date is 2014-08-29

The disassociation of ideas -- Glory and the idea of immortality -- Success and the idea of beauty -- The value of education -- Women and language -- Stéphane Mallarmé and the idea of decadence -- Of style or writing -- Subconscious creation -- The roots of idealism.

E-text prepared by Marc D'Hooghe (http://www.freeliterature.org) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)

"Decadence, and Other Essays on the Culture of Ideas" by Remy de Gourmont is a collection of philosophical essays written in the late 19th century. This work explores the interplay of ideas and the notion of decadence in relation to contemporary culture and thought. The essays delve into themes such as the nature of beauty, education, and the role of women in language, questioning established beliefs and examining the underlying currents of ideas that shape perception and society. The opening of the collection introduces Gourmont's concept of the "disassociation of ideas," where he contrasts the traditional acceptance of ideas with the notion of creating new associations or disassociations. He discusses the creative intelligence required to reframe old ideas and challenges the durability of commonly held beliefs, referring to them as "commonplaces." Gourmont employs analytical reasoning to dissect how ideas associate and disassociate, emphasizing individual thought's role in challenging societal norms and suggesting that the process of disassociation is necessary for intellectual liberation. Throughout, he presents a provocative critique of established truths, setting the stage for a deeper exploration of the complexities of human thought in the subsequent essays. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

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