Cycle 13 · 25 Jul 2025Naturalist ideology: answers to questions- 44:10A large set divided into two subsets: natural matter, which owes nothing to man, and matter produced by human activity.
Matter
Worked through in 15 videos · 17 passages.
Summary
Dominique Pagani treats matter as the most extensive and most rigorous concept, of which nature is only a subset1. He shows this through an example that recurs from one session to the next: natural and artificial flowers fall according to the same law, so the so-called laws of nature are in fact laws of matter2. He divides matter into two sets: a natural matter, which owes nothing to man, and a historical, cultural matter, informed by a human purpose345. A hammer is no less material than a pebble or a mango, but hammers do not grow on trees; religion itself belongs to this historical matter67. According to him, people speak of nature so as to avoid speaking of matter, and materialism is repressed because matter, caught up in generation and corruption, is the image of death6. He takes up the Aristotelian pairing of matter and form, with the example of the potter89, and maintains that sounds and music are immaterial only in appearance1011.
- 1#4.5 Angélique (by Nerval)12 Feb 2018 · 1:28:27
- 2#1.3 Between crisis and war: philosophising?14 Sept 2015 · 1:02:56
- 3Calves and Things (2): ecologism, the highest stage of capitalism?5 Oct 2020 · 17:40
- 4The essence of evil: innocence of nature, horror of naturalism!17 Dec 2024 · 1:05:57
- 5Naturalist ideology: answers to questions25 Jul 2025 · 44:10
- 6#2 From Lévi-Strauss to Nerval, on music3 Dec 2020 · 41:54
- 7Sahelian Africa and imperialism: Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger23 Mar 2024 · 38:28
- 8#2.8 Between crisis and war: philosophising?1 Aug 2017 · 1:17:11
- 9Our former savagery? An Illumination by Arthur Rimbaud13 Jun 2025 · 20:45
- 10#9 Romantic irony and the Vinteuil sonata15 Jan 2021 · 1:17:05
- 11#18 What is musical in music25 Mar 2021 · 1:06:58
Summary produced automatically from 17 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.
Cycle 13 · 25 Jul 2025Naturalist ideology: answers to questions
Series · 13 Jun 2025Our former savagery? An Illumination by Arthur Rimbaud- 20:45Nature supplies matter and man supplies form; matter gives existence, form gives essence, which is designated by language.
Cycle 13 · 17 Dec 2024The essence of evil: innocence of nature, horror of naturalism!- 1:05:57Matter is the most extensive whole, divided between a matter in which man plays no part and a matter shaped by human finality.
Talks · 23 Mar 2024Sahelian Africa and imperialism: Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger- 38:28Religion is a non-natural but historical matter: a hammer is no less material than a mango, but hammers do not hang from trees.
Series · 25 Mar 2021#18 What is musical in music- 1:06:58Music is not immaterial: the air vibrates; the code is cultural, but the channel is material.
Series · 15 Jan 2021#9 Romantic irony and the Vinteuil sonata- 1:17:05Sounds, scents and tastes are immaterial only in appearance: they are vibrations and molecules, less coarse than touch or sight.
Series · 3 Dec 2020#2 From Lévi-Strauss to Nerval, on music- 41:54We speak of nature so as not to speak of matter; culture is informed matter, a hammer is no less material than a pebble.
Talks · 5 Oct 2020Calves and Things (2): ecologism, the highest stage of capitalism?- 17:40Matter is the most extensive whole; within it one distinguishes a natural matter not transformed by man and a historical, cultural matter.
Talks · 29 Sept 2019The religion of money- 1:14:01The so-called laws of nature are laws of matter. Matter worked by man is no longer nature.
Cycle 5.2 · 30 Jun 2019#5.8 Nature or landscape?- 17:35This is the most extensive and rigorous concept, which divides into natural matter and cultural or spiritual matter.
Cycle 5.2 · 26 May 2019#5.7 Nature or landscape?- 40:43Natural flowers and artificial flowers fall according to the same law: this is not a law of nature but of matter, the most extensive concept.
- 1:07:56Matter contains two sets, natural matter and an artificial, cultural or historical matter; every reality leaves a material trace.
- 1:46:48Matter is what belongs to generation and corruption, to becoming; materialism is repressed because it is the image of death.
Cycle 4 · 12 Feb 2018#4.5 Angélique (by Nerval)- 1:28:27The notion of matter is more extensive than that of nature, which is only a subset of it.
Cycle 2 · 1 Aug 2017#2.8 Between crisis and war: philosophising?- 1:17:11Matter is brought to the potter, form by the potter; they are distinguished without being separable, which troubles Aristotle.
Series · 1 Feb 2016Marx on the Beach 2/2- 32:32One must distinguish nature and matter: nature, named by man who has externalized himself from it, is posterior to history, and the word takes on a religious and maternal meaning.
Cycle 1 · 14 Sept 2015#1.3 Between crisis and war: philosophising?- 1:02:56Physical laws are laws of matter, not of nature: natural and artificial flowers fall according to the same law.