Determination

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani starts from Spinoza's formula, "all determination is negation": to posit oneself is to oppose oneself, like the field that is established only by cutting down the forest, where one both gains and loses12. To determine is to finish and to end: the determinate has a clear outline, like the Parnassian statue, while scent and sound remain indeterminate. To name is already to determine. He contrasts Antiquity, which sees beauty in the completed, with modernity, which prefers the vague and the infinite3. Following Hegel, he distinguishes determinability (Bestimmtheit), which rules out chance without identifying the cause, from determination (Bestimmung), which names it, whether libidinal, class-based or both. He illustrates this with the detective who knows that someone came by without knowing who45. He also separates natural determinations, which can hardly be changed, from socio-historical determinations, which can change: one frees oneself from them by recognizing them instead of repressing them67.

1. 1#3.3 D'Ulysse à Dédale1 Aug 2017 · 3:43
2. 2#5.1 bis FaceBook Live / Questions2 Nov 2018 · 36:08
3. 3#5.2 ter FaceBookLive / Questions (2) suite à l'Atelier #5.26 Dec 2018 · 10:57
4. 4#4.7 Angélique (de Nerval)12 Apr 2018 · 1:22:58
5. 59 #23 "C'est réglé comme du papier à musique !" • Bach • Nerval • Lévi-Strauss9 Jun 2021 · 2:07:00
6. 6Ni gauche ni droite ? Islamo gauchisme ?17 Oct 2023 · 12:55
7. 7L'essence du mal - Innocence de la nature, horreur du naturalisme !17 Dec 2024 · 34:59

Summary produced automatically from 45 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.