Illusion

Worked through in 18 videos · 26 passages.

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani consistently distinguishes illusion from error: error is simply different from the true, whereas illusion is its inverse, "the truth multiplied by minus one," like a reflection in a mirror1 2. This inversion is no accident. Its necessity lies in the subject, who has an interest in not being enlightened, and this is why it is harder to get rid of an illusion than to correct an error3 4. He takes the example of geocentrism, which lasts because it is reassuring to be at the centre, and connects it to libido rather than to the episteme5. He also cites optical illusions and robinsonades, which believe they describe the origins when they are projecting onto them the isolated producer of the bourgeois economy6. With Spinoza, he sees in the false a displaced reality. He allows for prospective illusions and, in recent sessions, asks how one can let oneself be charmed by an illusion one knows to be one7.

Summary produced automatically from 26 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

Season 13 · 27 May 2025Flagrante Delights

57:19How can one be charmed by what one knows to be an illusion? This seems to contradict "ignorance cannot be learned."
1:00:16"Let my heart intoxicate itself with a lie": deliberately savoring a known illusion.

Season 13 · 2 Sept 2024Clouscard: The metamorphoses of class struggle

1:17:02Leibniz's compass needle, which would believe it wants to go north, shows the trap of consciousness.

Season 12 · 4 Jun 2024The matrix of all illusion: the past lived as present

2:10:13To unveil the truth is to recall that what is believed present and alive is in fact a corpse.
2:20:01The deceptive joy of the child who believes his mother will come belongs to the illusion at issue this evening.

Series · 18 Apr 2021#2 Lenin, or the wings of dreams

44:06Error merely differs from the true; illusion is its inversion and answers an interest of the subject, hence its persistence.
51:11Geocentrism endures because it is reassuring to be at the center.

Season 7 · 17 May 2020#8 • Harnessed to confinitude

8:11Error is simply different from the true; illusion is its reverse, and one can be sincerely mistaken in it.

Season 7 · 11 Apr 2020#4 • Harnessed to confinitude

27:16Error and illusion both express the false; but in error the false is simply different from the true, whereas in illusion it is its inverse, like a reflection.

Series · 23 Mar 2020Interview with Dominique Pagani: Introduction to the upcoming workshops

1:18:21The aestheticizing illusion of Nerval's generation is the mode through which the capitalist status quo exerts its seduction; Nerval shows its limit.

Season 6 · 8 Jan 2020#6.3 • The Logic of the Subject in the face of the reconstitution of Nazism

1:19:38Desubstantialization is an enriching loss: one loses counterfeit money; enchantment loses its counterfeit-money side.
1:23:51Mystery, mystification, false mystery: keeping a secret means there is not much to it; science progresses through communication.

Season 5.1 · 6 Dec 2018#5.2 bis FaceBookLive / Questions (1)

26:39Unlike error, illusion corresponds to an interest; truth is its reverse, as in a mirror, hence the difficulty of freeing oneself from it.

Season 5.1 · 6 Dec 2018#5.2 ter FaceBookLive / Questions (2) following Workshop #5.2

37:55Illusion always corresponds to what suits me; the geocentric illusion is more reassuring and belongs to libido, not to episteme.

Season 4 · 16 May 2018#4.8 Angélique (by Nerval)

1:10:48Error differs from the true, illusion is its inverse, truth multiplied by minus one, as in a mirror.

Season 4 · 15 Jan 2018#4.4 Angélique (by Nerval)

44:53With Spinoza, the false expresses a displaced real, not a nothingness.
47:41In illusion, the false is the opposite of the true and the subject has an interest in the error: it is harder to shed than to correct a mistake.

Talks · 9 Mar 2017Is History a subject?

1:07:22The Robinsonade is the reverse of truth: it projects onto the origins the isolated producer of the modern, bourgeois economy.

Season 2 · 15 Feb 2016#2.1 Between crisis and war: Philosophising?

1:42:42The Robinsonades: believing one is thinking the past by projecting the present onto it; an inversion graver than error.

Series · 1 Feb 2016Marx on the Beach 1/2

22:01What is in our heads is often the inverse of the real, as in a mirror; it is harder to get rid of an illusion than to correct an error.
24:34Robinsonades believe they speak of a founding past when they project the present of free enterprise.

Season 1 · 11 Dec 2015#1.7 Between crisis and war: Philosophising?

43:07Error differs from the true, illusion is its inverse; it has its necessity in the subject, who has no interest in enlightening himself.
56:36The one who stays in bed has the illusion of doing what he wants.

Series · 8 Jan 2015Y for Yonville

7:47Illusion is not a mere error: it is the inversion of the real, like geocentrism or optical illusions.
10:20There is always illusion in the imaginary, but some illusions are prospective; afterward, the truth must be set right side up.

Series · 26 Sept 2014#4 Neo-fascism and the ideology of desire; on the thought of M.Clouscard.

3:27In illusion, the false is not merely different from the true but is its inverse; this cannot be a matter of chance, hence a necessity of the false and an interest in being in the false.