Season 13 · 9 Aug 2025The repression of the subject in bourgeois civil society- 43:28Nothing is more ambiguous than the middle: point M of a red and blue segment is violet; the red-brown amalgam is an example of this.
The middle
Worked through in 4 videos · 8 passages.
What Dominique Pagani says
Dominique Pagani approaches the middle from several angles. In 2017, he uses it as a framework for reading a work. First there is a temporal middle: 1851, the midpoint of the century, between a Romanticism that is handing over and a Baudelaire who has not yet come1. Then there is a spatial middle: Frankfurt, between the West and Mitteleuropa. Finally, the work takes place between two tombs, the mother's and Rousseau's2. From 2021 onward, he stresses the ambiguity of the middle. The point M of a red and blue segment is violet: both extremes share in it, everything blurs there, and it is a blind spot. The middle is also the element, the ambient medium, neither this nor that but their interpenetration3. In 2025, he gives the red-brown amalgam as an example of this ambiguity. He applies the notion to the market, the middle term between two distant producers and a shop window that hides the back room of production4. He also applies it to the "I think": it is not a source, but the medium in which all representations are immersed5.
- 1Griaule (Marcel)18 Oct 2017 · 23:10
- 2Griaule (Marcel)18 Oct 2017 · 54:34
- 3Cynisme de l'extrême centre ou héroïsme épistémique ? La dialectique du milieu • Dominique Pagani20 May 2021 · 16:19
- 4Cynisme de l'extrême centre ou héroïsme épistémique ? La dialectique du milieu • Dominique Pagani20 May 2021 · 31:38
- 5Cynisme de l'extrême centre ou héroïsme épistémique ? La dialectique du milieu • Dominique Pagani20 May 2021 · 46:36
Summary produced automatically from 8 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.
Season 13 · 9 Aug 2025The repression of the subject in bourgeois civil society
Series · 20 May 2021Cynicism of the extreme centre or epistemic heroism? The dialectic of the middle • Dominique Pagani- 16:19The point M, both red and blue, is a blind spot; the milieu is also the element, the surrounding milieu, neither this nor that but their interpenetration.
- 31:38The market is the middle term where two distant producers meet: it is a showcase that hides the backroom of production.
- 46:36The "I think" is not the source: it is the milieu in which all my representations bathe.
Season 9.2 · 14 Jan 20219 #12 How can sciences of history be real?- 22:57It is the most ambiguous position, where both extremes participate and everything becomes blurred, like the violet point between red and blue.
Season 4 · 18 Oct 2017#4.1 Angélique (by Nerval)- 23:101851 is the temporal middle of the century, between romanticism handing over the baton and Baudelaire not yet arrived.
- 29:26Frankfurt is the spatial middle, between the West and Mitteleuropa.
- 54:34Final determination of the middle: the work takes place between two tombs, that of the mother and that of Rousseau.