The Marquis de Sade remains one of the most disturbing and provocative figures in Western thought, yet he has been systematically excluded from the philosophical canon. This groundbreaking study challenges that exclusion by repositioning Sade as a genuine philosopher of the Enlightenment and a thinker deeply embedded in the intellectual debates of his time.

Drawing on materialism, vitalism, and sentimentalism, Sade systematically dismantles the optimistic tenets of eighteenth-century philosophy. Through a genealogical approach that examines his engagement with figures such as Rousseau, d'Holbach, and La Mettrie, this book reveals how Sade's transgressive writings emerge from—and respond to—the philosophical legacy of the Lumières. His work addresses enduring questions of morality, politics, education, and religion with unsettling clarity and remarkable originality. By exploring both Sade's clandestine libertine novels and his published works, the book demonstrates that his thought constitutes not a rupture but a volcanic eruption of the Enlightenment's internal contradictions.

Sade as Philosophe will appeal to scholars and graduate students interested in eighteenth-century philosophy, intellectual history, and French literature.

Marco Menin is Associate Professor of History of Philosophy at the University of Turin, Italy. His research focuses on the history of sensibility and emotions in 18th-century France, particularly the synergy between philosophical, literary, and medical thought. He is the author of four books including Thinking About Tears: Crying and Weeping in Long-Eighteenth-Century France (2022).