Doxa

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani understands doxa, opinion, in opposition to epistēmē, science. He traces this opposition back to ancient Greece, where Parmenides separates the two "with an axe stroke"1. In Plato, opinion corresponds to the shadows at the back of the cave and to the sensible world: it is an inferior, immediate knowledge, which can be true from time to time but does not contain within itself the principle of its truth2. He associates it with café talk, where people exchange views and clash, but where truth is not established3. He insists on this point: opinion aims not at truth but at power, that is, at gaining sway over an audience, which ties it to sophistry4. He nevertheless acknowledges that there are correct opinions, and that one passes to knowledge when an opinion can be justified and demonstrated5. Philosophy and science share a break with it, on the model of mathematics, and he also links revolution to the passage from doxa to epistēmē6.

1. 1#9 Bien-et Mé-faits de l'amnésie...17 Dec 2020 · 10:21
2. 2Kant11 Dec 2015 · 17:15
3. 3La quête du Graal, bondieuserie ou sacrilège ?1 Apr 2024 · 28:59
4. 4#2.8 Entre crise et guerre : Philosopher ?1 Aug 2017 · 12:24
5. 5Platon14 Sept 2015 · 33:43
6. 6De Copernic à Lénine: Révolution !28 Aug 2026 · 1:05:47

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