Series · 6 Jul 2026From Plato to Proust- 26:21Happiness is extension, the possible multiplication of oneself; in Spinoza, an increase of power.
Happiness
Worked through in 27 videos · 50 passages.
Summary
Dominique Pagani defines happiness by two determinations: a thickness of duration, which distinguishes it from pleasure or enjoyment, which are intense but brief, and a positive and necessary relation to the world, here and now, which distinguishes it from salvation and inner peace12. Hence, according to him, the imperfect tense of happy narratives and the link between happiness and memory3. He sees it as the secular notion that unifies the Enlightenment and on which Voltaire and Rousseau agree. He places it as a middle term between libertine enjoyment reserved for an elite and Robespierre's virtue4. Taking up Saint-Just's phrase, "a new idea in Europe", he makes it a popular and revolutionary demand: enjoyment becomes happiness when the productive forces make it possible to extend it to the people5. He adds that happiness is not a cognitive notion. He relates it to Rousseau, Mozart and Tchaikovsky, and, in Spinoza, to the increase of power.
- 1#1.8 Between crisis and war: philosophising?28 Jan 2016 · 49:42
- 2#14 Mozart once more7 Feb 2021 · 1:09:18
- 3#3 Harnessed to confinitude4 Apr 2020 · 46:15
- 4What is to be done? 1/329 Jan 2016 · 23:21
- 5#14 Mozart once more7 Feb 2021 · 1:51:58
Summary produced automatically from 50 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.
Series · 6 Jul 2026From Plato to Proust
Talks · 23 May 2026Neo-fascism and the ideology of desire: is Michel Clouscard still relevant?- 1:38:42French tradition: a pleasure that lasts, conjugated in the imperfect tense, and a positive relation to the world rather than to the beyond.
Cycle 11 · 3 Sept 2023Worldliness in Clouscard: desiring what? Through whom?- 32:06Distinct from enjoyment, it presupposes a temporal thickness and a positive relation to the world, unlike salvation.
- 35:34A new idea in Europe: it must no longer be reserved for a minority.
- 1:44:14Positive relation to the world: contentment due to something external, an openness onto society in its breadth and historical thickness.
Talks · 29 May 2023From the debauchery of sense to the orgy of sentiment- 13:14Distinct from pleasure: it requires a temporal thickness, duration or repetition, and a positive relation to the world here below.
- 1:45:28The voluptuousness of innocence is worth as much as the other because it has no interval and acts continuously.
- 1:54:04The eighteenth century is thirsty for happiness, which Saint-Just calls a new idea; it presupposes the real transformation of the world.
Cycle 11 · 18 May 2023Worldliness in Clouscard, or privileges for all
Cycle 11 · 26 Apr 2023Worldliness in Clouscard, or “the dominant ideology”- 23:50An ideal shared by Voltaire and Rousseau, happiness is achieved here on earth and has a necessary relation to the world, unlike salvation or inner peace.
- 25:42It also presupposes a thickness of duration, which distinguishes it from fleeting enjoyment.
- 1:24:49Equity is its source: enjoyment is not condemnable as long as it is not the privilege of a few.
Series · 1 Jun 2022Polymorphously perverse Mozart- 2:24The eighteenth century is the century in which happiness is sought, a value on which Voltaire and Rousseau agree.
Series · 7 Feb 2021#14 Mozart once more- 39:31Happiness is ancient, but not for the masses; the elite that reserves it for itself has only enjoyment.
- 1:09:18Happiness has two determinations: a thickness of duration and a positive and necessary relation to the world, not to the beyond.
- 1:51:58Enjoyment becomes happiness when the productive forces make its extension to the people possible.
Series · 2 Feb 2021#13 Mozart restored- 11:50A new idea in Europe according to Saint-Just, introduced by the andantino of the concerto for flute and harp.
- 30:42Expresses the historically determined passage of a society beginning to be able to escape nature into the city.
- 1:15:44Reserved for a few, it was only pleasure; it becomes the horizon of the popular masses.
Series · 11 Jan 2021#8 Happiness and unhappiness in music- 6:21A term first extensive and vague for "positive mood," to be distinguished from jouissance, salvation, and peace.
- 42:09A new and revolutionary idea, inscribed in the desires of the masses, which the counter-revolution has not been able to eradicate.
- 51:38Two proper determinations: a positive relation to the world, here and now, and a temporal thickness, a duration.
Series · 11 Dec 2020#5 Happiness versus the death drive in music- 6:59Freshness, innocence, paradise without ambivalence or a deathly side, which Tchaikovsky makes audible.
- 20:49A new idea in Europe since the Revolution: the popular demand for simple, non-puritan pleasure, carried by the growth of the popular classes.
- 1:02:14Double determination: a positive, earthly relation to the world and duration in time, hence the imperfect tense in literature; never without pleasure.
Series · 3 Dec 2020#3 What is called modern music?- 34:56Key word uniting Voltaire and Rousseau: we are no longer in salvation but in happiness here and now.
Cycle 9.1 · 8 Oct 2020#1 Benefits and harms of amnesia…
Cycle 8 · 23 Jul 2020#15 Return to the logics of the subject- 17:43Rabelaisian laughter and happiness, "a new idea in Europe," are opposed to the guilt-tripping of humanity.
Cycle 8 · 30 May 2020#9 Return to the logics of the subject- 21:09Unlike pleasure, evanescent and enclosed in the instant, happiness requires a thickness of duration; hence the imperfect tense of happy stories.
Cycle 7 · 4 Apr 2020#3 Harnessed to confinitude- 46:15Pleasure is intense but brief; happiness requires duration, repetition, is spoken in the imperfect tense and is recalled to memory.
Series · 23 Mar 2020Introduction to the upcoming workshops
Cycle 5.2 · 29 Jul 2019#5.9 Kafka, “An Imperial Message”- 5:56A secular notion, a reference value unifying the Enlightenment, distinct from Pascal's salvation and the libertine's enjoyment.
Cycle 5.2 · 26 Mar 2019#5.5 Nature or landscape?- 18:24An Enlightenment value and a middle term between the fleetingness of libertine pleasure and the absent presence of salvation; it lasts and it is earthly.
Talks · 20 May 2018Work and the right to work- 14:19A key notion of the Enlightenment: pleasure that lasts, a positive relation to the world here and now, hence progressive, unlike salvation.
Cycle 3 · 1 Aug 2017#3.3 From Ulysses to Daedalus
Series · 29 Jan 2016What is to be done? 1/3- 23:21Middle term between the libertine's enjoyment and Robespierre's virtue, happiness includes enjoyment without being reduced to it.
- 29:46It is distinct from salvation and from peace: it presupposes duration, an accord with the world and a relation to the other. It has a historical value.
- 53:00Happiness is the right of peoples, revolutionary in its time, and the theme that gives unity to the Enlightenment.
Series · 29 Jan 2016What is to be done? 3/3
Series · 29 Jan 2016What is to be done? 2/3- 3:58Unlike religious salvation, happiness is linked to the world, to material wealth; it forms the unity of the Enlightenment.
Cycle 1 · 28 Jan 2016#1.8 Between crisis and war: philosophising?
Cycle 1 · 10 Dec 2015#1.6 Between crisis and war: philosophising?- 5:53Happiness is distinguished from pleasure by duration and by a necessary positive relation to the world; a secular notion, distinct from salvation.
Series · 26 Dec 2014L for Liberty