Force

Worked through in 9 videos · 16 passages.

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Summary

Dominique Pagani first places force in the order of nature: it is the primary concept of physics, the one from which work and power are built, and there is nothing pejorative in it1 2. In nature force reigns and there is no freedom3. The problem begins when force passes into the human order. He often repeats Rousseau's formula that the strongest is never strong enough unless he converts his strength into right and obedience into duty. Following Rousseau, he concludes that right adds nothing to force and that the community is always stronger than a single individual4. If force makes right, no right can be established. To abuse the civil state amounts to reintroducing the relation of force, through arms or through wealth5. Drawing on the Gorgias, he shows that Callicles moves from physical force to cunning or intelligence without ever defining force6. Against this he sets a true and infinite force: the unity that lets contradiction develop and then unifies it7.

Summary produced automatically from 16 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

Cycle 10 · 23 Dec 2021#10.7 “Postmodern” eco-petty-Nazism: Plato's Gorgias

45:49In von Haller, force is not that of the just and the moral, but contingent natural force.
55:10Socrates shows that Callicles moves from physical force to the force of intelligence without defining force.
1:06:11True and infinite force is the unity that lets contradiction develop and then unifies it.

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

1:28:09The strongest must convert his force into right; if force makes right, no right can ever be established.
1:30:39Force belongs in physics, of which it is the fundamental concept.

Talks · 6 Oct 2018On Marx

36:45The first concept of physics is force: in nature force reigns, there is no freedom.

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

36:12In the order of nature, force is the primary concept, from which all physical concepts derive. There is nothing pejorative in it.

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

27:26A concept belonging first to physics, from which work and power are constructed.
28:26Rousseau destroys the argument from force: right adds nothing to force; the community is always stronger than a single individual.

Cycle 1 · 14 Sept 2015#1.2 Between crisis and war: philosophising?

48:34Callicles' notion of force is vague: physical force, then cunning. The force of intelligence passes through society.
1:20:41The strongest is never strong enough to remain master forever unless he converts his force into right.

Series · 2 Jan 2015S for Savagery

7:53To abuse civil society is to reintroduce the relation of force, through weapons or through wealth, where right was supposed to reign.
8:45Force is the first notion of physics; it alone decides in the order of real nature.

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

6:29Nature makes neither the rich man nor the prince; it is the balance of force that makes masters, and what men have made, they can destroy.

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

49:43Force reigns in nature; all the basic concepts of physics derive from it.
50:21The strongest is never strong enough unless he converts his force into right and obedience into duty.