Cycle 15 · 28 Aug 2026From Copernicus to Lenin: revolution!Doxa
Worked through in 15 videos · 17 passages.
Summary
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 truth. He associates it with café talk, where people exchange views and clash, but where truth is not established2. 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 sophistry3. He nevertheless acknowledges that there are correct opinions, and that one passes to knowledge when an opinion can be justified and demonstrated. Philosophy and science share a break with it, on the model of mathematics, and he also links revolution to the passage from doxa to epistēmē4.
- 1#9 Benefits and harms of amnesia…17 Dec 2020 · 10:21
- 2The quest for the Grail, sanctimony or sacrilege?1 Apr 2024 · 28:59
- 3#2.8 Between crisis and war: philosophising?1 Aug 2017 · 12:24
- 4From Copernicus to Lenin: revolution!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.
Cycle 15 · 28 Aug 2026From Copernicus to Lenin: revolution!
Cycle 12 · 1 Apr 2024The quest for the Grail, sanctimony or sacrilege?- 28:59The bottom of the cave is the corner café, where people clash over opinions rather than epistēmē; it is not the place of truth.
Cycle 11 · 28 Sept 2022And what about the subject in all this? Hölderlin, Mallarmé and Baudelaire- 7:55Opinion, that of TV panels, is opposed to knowledge; philosophy seeks statements that do not depend on anyone's whim.
Cycle 9.2 · 5 Feb 2021#9.14 How can sciences of history be real?- 33:31Philosophy and science share the trait of breaking with opinion, the back of the cave, corner-café talk.
Cycle 9.1 · 17 Dec 2020#9 Benefits and harms of amnesia…- 10:21Since ancient Greece, doxa, opinion, is opposed to episteme, science; Parmenides separates them with a single stroke of the axe.
Talks · 16 Nov 2017The philosopher's two enemies: the dogmatist and the sceptic- 2:27This is opinion, prior to philosophy: a discourse that may seduce or serve to complain, but which aims at power over an audience, not truth.
Cycle 2 · 1 Aug 2017#2.8 Between crisis and war: philosophising?- 12:24Opinion has no aim of truth but of power: exercising influence over an audience.
Cycle 3 · 1 Aug 2017#3.5 From Ulysses to Daedalus- 24:31Opinion, an inferior mode of knowledge corresponding to the shadows at the back of the cave and to the sensible world; it is false but immediate.
Cycle 2 · 18 Feb 2016#2.3 Between crisis and war: philosophising?- 17:06Plato wants to treat the problems of the city as mathematicians do, by defining, so as to escape the coffeehouse chatter and opinion.
Cycle 2 · 15 Feb 2016#2.1 Between crisis and war: philosophising?- 1:28:19The self with others without the true: café talk, opinion, sophistry, communication.
Series · 29 Jan 2016What is to be done? 2/3- 36:28Sophistic persuasion aims at doxa, without truth-value; that of the geometer aims at episteme.
Cycle 1 · 28 Jan 2016#1.8 Between crisis and war: philosophising?- 0:43The most uncertain form of knowledge, opinion, the corner café: a place of exchange, not a place where truth is established.
Cycle 1 · 11 Dec 2015#1.7 Between crisis and war: philosophising?- 17:15Knowledge that keeps to the shadows of the sensible; it can be true from time to time but does not have in itself the principle of its truth.
Series · 8 Dec 2015Michel Clouscard, the paths of praxis (1/2)- 47:38Opinion, that of the back of the cave and of the corner café, is not of the order of truth; against the opportunism of the sophists, one must appeal to a mathematical certainty.
Cycle 1 · 14 Sept 2015#1.2 Between crisis and war: philosophising?