Civil society

état civil

Worked through in 17 videos · 25 passages.

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Summary

Dominique Pagani approaches the civil state through Rousseau's Social Contract. There, the passage from the state of nature to the civil state substitutes justice for instinct and duty for appetite, and turns a "stupid and limited animal" into an intelligent being1 2. He specifies that the civil state is not the town hall: it is the anthropological order of language, love and marriage3. In it, man loses natural liberty, bounded by his strength, and gains civil liberty, limited by the general will4. This passage, in his view, did not happen once and for all. It is renewed with each birth and each education, and goes on unceasingly5 6. He also dwells on the abuses of this condition. To abuse the civil state is to restore the law of the strongest while passing it off as right, which can degrade man below the animal. Evil therefore comes from these abuses, not from nature. He sees the restoration of a state founded on force as the programme of today's governments.

Summary produced automatically from 25 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

Cycle 13 · 17 Dec 2024The essence of evil: innocence of nature, horror of naturalism!

3:47This is the social world; it substitutes justice for instinct and gives morality to actions.
4:32The passage from the state of nature to the civil state never ceases to occur.

Talks · 29 May 2023From the debauchery of sense to the orgy of sentiment

2:19:48Within civil society, force must be replaced by law; evil comes from the abuses of this condition, not from nature.

Talks · 27 Mar 2023Praxis and psyche

16:43The passage to civil society substitutes justice for instinct, duty for appetite; its abuses can degrade man below the animal.

Cycle 11 · 3 Mar 2023War, neo-fascism: libertarian liberalism

52:31In nature, the wolf does neither good nor evil; these notions presuppose that one has left the state of nature. Restoring a state of nature founded on force is the program of today's governments.

Cycle 11 · 23 Nov 2022The aporias of anthropology

1:14:47The passage from the state of nature to civil society substitutes justice for instinct; its abuses can degrade man below the beast.

Series · 30 Apr 2021My eco-cabin in the ZAD: autonomy or alienation?

10:14In passing from the state of nature to the civil state, one loses natural liberty and gains civil liberty, which is not a null operation.

Cycle 9.2 · 3 Apr 2021#9.18 Twilight of the Gods, or from repetition to liberation

1:20:43In entering civil society, man loses the natural liberty bounded by his strength and acquires civil liberty limited by the general will.
1:28:41Among the Gibichungs, Siegfried arrives at the first organized society, civil society.

Cycle 9.1 · 19 Nov 2020#5 Benefits and harms of amnesia…

1:27:42The passage from the state of nature to the civil state substitutes justice for instinct and duty for appetite.
1:30:17This passage did not happen once and for all: it never stops continuing.

Cycle 8 · 9 Jul 2020#13 Return to the logics of the subject

58:06In Rousseau what matters is the passage from the state of nature to the civil state: justice replaces instinct, duty replaces appetite, but man can fall below the animal.

Cycle 5.1 · 24 Oct 2018#5.1 The philosopher's Odyssey: revolutionary thought

20:43The passage from the state of nature to the civil state substitutes justice for instinct; it is irreversible, but its abuses degrade man below the animal.
1:27:29To abuse the civil state is to restore relations of force by passing them off as right.

Talks · 6 Oct 2018On Marx

20:11In Rousseau, the passage from the state of nature to the civil state substitutes justice for instinct and turns the limited animal into a man.
37:25Abusing the civil state means restoring in it the law of the strongest and making people believe they are in a state of law.

Cycle 4 · 11 Dec 2017#4.3 Angélique (by Nerval)

53:52The passage from the state of nature to the civil state substitutes justice for instinct and duty for appetite.

Cycle 3 · 1 Aug 2017#3.6 From Ulysses to Daedalus

1:11:21The passage from the state of nature to the civil state is made at every instant, between two legislations, that of hunger and that of society; regression toward force remains possible.
1:26:53Every upbringing relaunches hominization, which is not only genetic but pertains to the relation from subject to subject.

Series · 29 Jan 2016What is to be done? 2/3

17:20The civil state is not the town hall but the anthropological order: language, love, marriage, whereby man becomes an intelligent being.
24:44The text is ternary: its object is the passage from the state of nature to the civil state, which is remade at every birth.

Series · 2 Jan 2015S for Savagery

3:47The danger that makes the savage flee comes from civil society, from men against men, not from the state of nature.
4:45The passage to civil society substitutes justice for instinct, ennobles the passions, and turns the limited animal into an intelligent being, except in cases of abuse.

Series · 23 Sept 2014#3 The myth of the noble savage in Rousseau

1:12Man becomes intelligent only by entering civil society; the state of nature alone yields a stupid and limited animal.

Series · 20 Sept 2014#2 Rousseau, a world that begins

12:29The passage from the state of nature to the civil state substitutes justice for instinct; man should bless the moment that turned a stupid animal into an intelligent being.