Institution

Summary

Dominique Pagani defines institution in opposition to instinct: it does not extend instinct but runs counter to it12. In his view, history begins when the natural program is thwarted in this way, and social facts are coercive in character. He often returns to the same examples: hunger is an instinct, the meal an institution; sexuality belongs to instinct, marriage to institution, monogamous here, polygamous elsewhere. He also cites the prohibition of incest and the rule "help yourself first". He sees in the diversity of these rules, compared with the universality of natural law, the proof of a space for freedom3. He places the family on the boundary between nature and culture, since marriage presupposes the State4. In political terms, he makes institution, above all that of the State, the pacified framework of participation: the participatory must animate it without replacing it5. Finally, he points out that no language is born of an institution, which can only codify or forbid.

1. 1#4.5 Angélique (by Nerval)12 Feb 2018 · 1:32:16
2. 2Michel Foucault2 May 2019 · 1:11:57
3. 3#2 Benefits and harms of amnesia…23 Oct 2020 · 44:06
4. 4#10.2 Dialectics of identity and difference6 Oct 2021 · 11:09
5. 5Tonight, we repoliticise (part 1)12 Mar 2018 · 19:23

Summary produced automatically from 21 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.