Middle term

Summary

Dominique Pagani understands the middle term in its proper sense: what lies in the middle, where the two extremes relate to each other as opposites while remaining separate1. He starts from the syllogism, with its extremes and its middle term, and carries this pattern over to society: the middle classes are the middle term that is missing in the Middle Ages2. In any transmission, the middle lies between sender and receiver, two roles that are exchanged in dialogue3. The means seems secondary, like a valet or a messenger, but it turns out to be what is essential. In his view, rehabilitating it has a dimension of political emancipation4. He stresses how the means turns against the end: the tool or the slave placed between me and the desired object, or language, which we take for a mere means and which determines us. He sees this as a decisive moment of dialectics56. A change in the middle term therefore brings about a change in the content. He also applies the notion to Corsican megaliths, a middle term between the sea and the mountain7.

1. 1A chapter of Marx written by Hegel22 May 2021 · 19:24
2. 2#5.1 bis Questions (Facebook Live)2 Nov 2018 · 54:38
3. 3#5.1 bis Questions (Facebook Live)2 Nov 2018 · 3:17
4. 4#5.1 bis Questions (Facebook Live)2 Nov 2018 · 9:42
5. 5Pagani without detours21 Sept 2019 · 53:01
6. 6Between sea and mountain, the standing stones of Valinco (the Corsican Neolithic)24 Nov 2020 · 16:07
7. 7Between sea and mountain, the standing stones of Valinco (the Corsican Neolithic)24 Nov 2020 · 20:18

Summary produced automatically from 8 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.