Dogmatism

Summary

Dominique Pagani distinguishes two uses of the term. In the precise, Kantian and non-pejorative sense, dogmatism refers to the position that no limit can be assigned to knowledge: starting from a principle and using a method drawn from mathematics, nothing would resist it, not even God or the soul1. This is Cartesian optimism, shared by Spinoza and Leibniz, which Kant brings to an end2. In the ordinary sense, the dogmatist is, along with the sceptic, one of the philosopher's two enemies: the one believes he knows everything, the other that he knows nothing, and both answer before searching and spare themselves the work of inquiry34. He illustrates this figure with the person for whom beauty is the Parthenon. With Hegel, as read by Jacques D'Hondt, he links dogma to the understanding that freezes truth against history5. He rejects this charge in the case of Marx, who constantly reworked his advances, and of Engels, whose apparent dogmatism comes from pedagogical simplification.

1. 1#9.11 How can sciences of history be real?7 Jan 2021 · 1:01:38
2. 2Pagani without detours21 Sept 2019 · 1:01:12
3. 3#2.8 Between crisis and war: philosophising?1 Aug 2017 · 9:05
4. 4Language and thought: the case of Lavoisier13 Apr 2026 · 11:58
5. 5Tribute to Jacques D'Hondt (1)2 Aug 2016 · 24:31

Summary produced automatically from 17 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.