Season 14 · 13 Apr 2026Language and thought: The case of Lavoisier- 49:01"I must eat to live" is not a duty; the verb must takes on meaning only where the opposite is possible.
Duty
Worked through in 12 videos · 12 passages.
What Dominique Pagani says
Dominique Pagani returns regularly, from 2015 to 2026, to the same distinction: "I must eat to live" misuses the verb "must" (devoir), because it expresses a physical necessity, an "I cannot not", which in fact belongs to the realm of power (pouvoir)12. Duty in the strong sense only makes sense where I could do the opposite. It therefore presupposes choice and a space of freedom3. He takes the example of the red light: I must respect it because I can break the law, and freedom is thus maintained4. Moral duty then implies choosing a value5. He also contrasts duty with blind obedience: to obey out of duty is to obey a law that I recognize as well-founded6. On the political level, he brings up the distinction between what is and what ought to be. Hegel mocks the "ought" and wants reason to understand what is7. Marx studies what is in order to be able to change it, against utopian socialism8.
- 1Platon14 Sept 2015 · 12:39
- 29 #14 Comment des sciences de l'histoire peuvent-elles être réelles?5 Feb 2021 · 1:30:35
- 3Mythologie et Vérité8 Aug 2015 · 2:43
- 4#5.3 bis FaceBookLive / Questions13 Jan 2019 · 34:07
- 5L’éternel retour… des camps de la mort ?13 Oct 2024 · 10:42
- 6SPÉCIAL NIGER : Faut-il "noircir les cadavres" ?7 Aug 2023 · 57:10
- 7Dominique Pagani sur Michel Clouscard - Les chemins de la praxis 1/28 Dec 2015 · 34:07
- 8Argent, travail, liberté3 Aug 2019 · 36:56
Summary produced automatically from 12 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
Season 13 · 17 Dec 2024The essence of evil - Innocence of nature, horror of naturalism!- 14:19"I must eat to live" is inaccurate: it is a capacity, a necessity. One uses "must" only when the opposite is possible.
Season 13 · 13 Oct 2024The eternal return… of the death camps?- 10:42"I must eat" expresses a physical necessity whose opposite is impossible. Moral duty presupposes that the opposite is possible and that one must choose a value.
Season 11 · 7 Aug 2023NIGER SPECIAL: Should we "blacken the corpses"?- 57:10Blind obedience must become duty: I obey the law that I recognize as founded.
Season 9.2 · 5 Feb 20219 #14 How can sciences of history be real?- 1:30:35"I must eat" expresses an "I cannot not"; duty makes sense only if I can do the opposite.
Talks · 21 Sept 2019Pagani without detours- 27:27"I must eat" misuses the verb, since this is a necessity; true duty presupposes the choice to do the opposite.
Talks · 3 Aug 2019Money, work, freedom- 36:56Distinction between is and ought-to-be: Marx studies what is in order to be able to change it, against utopian socialism.
Season 5.1 · 13 Jan 2019#5.3 bis FaceBookLive / Questions- 34:07"I must eat to live" expresses a physical necessity; "I must stop at the red light" implies that I can deviate from the law: freedom is preserved.
Series · 8 Dec 2015Dominique Pagani on Michel Clouscard - The paths of praxis 1/2- 34:07Hegel mocks the ought-to-be in politics: reason must understand what is, not what ought to be.
Season 1 · 14 Sept 2015#1.3 Between crisis and war: Philosophising?- 23:36"Duty" makes sense only where I can do otherwise: moral obligation, not physical necessity.
Season 1 · 14 Sept 2015#1.2 Between crisis and war: Philosophising?- 12:39The verb "must" only makes sense where I have a choice. "I must eat" actually belongs to the realm of power, not duty.
Talks · 8 Aug 2015Mythology and Truth- 2:43"I must eat" expresses a physical necessity; duty in the strong sense exists only where I could do otherwise, and thus presupposes a semblance of freedom.