Definition

définition

Worked through in 11 videos · 14 passages.

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Summary

Dominique Pagani starts from etymology: "definition" contains "finish". A definition therefore comes at the end of the analysis, not at the beginning1. He takes up Aristotle's formula: to define is to give the proximate genus and the specific difference. He sees in it two contradictory operations, stating what is common and then what is proper, including and excluding2. The example of the cheetah and the platypus shows that the formula is not always easy to apply. He brings definition and determination together: to define is to limit a thing on the basis of something else. Thus a table is defined by its function rather than by its shape or its material3. For him, concepts are like elastic bands that must be tightened. Clarifying a term means distinguishing it from what resembles it4. He also notes that a science is defined by its object, but does not itself define that object. In 2021, he specifies that a definition does not fix a definitive point of view: it serves to agree on the meaning of words5. In 2026, he places the question "what do you call…?" at the heart of philosophy.

Summary produced automatically from 14 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

Season 14 · 13 Apr 2026Language and thought: the case of Lavoisier

24:33According to Aristotle, to define is to indicate the genus plus the specific difference; the cheetah and the platypus show this is not always obvious.

Season 14 · 28 Feb 2026Their “Europe” means war

22:05What specifies the philosophical field is the question "what do you call it?" more than "what is it?" One must agree on the predicate of fascism.

Season 14 · 4 Feb 2026The return of fascism

11:23In "definition" there is "finite": one does not begin with the definition, one attempts it at the end of the analysis.

Season 11 · 3 Sept 2023Worldliness in Clouscard: desiring what? Through whom?

31:25To make a concept precise is to distinguish it from what it might be confused with.

Season 10 · 20 Sept 2021Presentation of the 2021-2022 workshops and association membership

14:39A definition should not give a definitive point of view, whatever the etymology may suggest; it serves to agree on the meaning of words, each person being able to propose another meaning.

Series · 11 Dec 2020#5 Happiness versus the death drive in music

1:01:09To clarify a term is to distinguish it from what resembles it: it is between similar things that differential determinations must be pointed out.

Season 5.2 · 25 Jan 2019#5.4 Introduction: nature or landscape?

49:19Every science defines itself by its object, but no science defines its object: the botanist receives plants empirically.
52:05The name is not in the object. It is the role we assign to it that decides how it is named.

Season 5.1 · 13 Jan 2019#5.3 bis Questions (Facebook Live)

18:04A science is defined by its object in the sense of a domain of definition: animals for zoology, social facts for sociology.
38:52Definition and determination say the same thing: what is bounded on the basis of something else. The table is defined by its function, not by its form or matter.

Talks · 9 Mar 2017Is history a subject?

6:17Concepts are like elastic bands: stretched too loose, they no longer work. A word that would say everything must be limited, determined.

Series · 2 Feb 2016Hegel on the Beach 3/5

2:16:53To give the proximate genus and the specific difference: two contradictory operations, stating the common then the proper.

Talks · 26 Apr 2015The music of history

0:20In the word définition there is finir (to end): the definition comes at the end, not at the beginning.
18:50To define is to give the proximate genus plus the specific difference; it is a task that contains a tension between including and excluding.