Philosophy

philosophie

Worked through in 21 videos · 38 passages.

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Summary

Dominique Pagani distinguishes a strict sense of philosophy, running from Socrates to Hegel, from a broad sense, which answers the "know thyself" that Marx, Nietzsche and Freud explore further outside its field1. He has it begin with Socrates: the question "what is it?" then gives way to "what do you call?", which bears on words rather than on things2. What is proper to it is answering "what should I do?" in the mode of knowledge rather than opinion. Because this practical question is asked in a cognitive mode, every philosophy starts out limping. For him, it is neither a science nor an opinion but a discipline, to be distinguished from religion, science and poetry3. The philosopher stands between the mathematician and the poet, and tries to reconcile the rigour of the one with the other's faithfulness to the affects4. He also calls philosophy a daughter of crisis and the shadow of politics, and says it always comes too late.

Summary produced automatically from 38 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

Cycle 15 · 5 May 2026The foundations of the Platonic and Aristotelian distinction

2:48Philosophia is love of wisdom: one desires only what one does not have; philosophy is questioning and a break with immediate certainties.
18:42Search for and lack of wisdom, it involves an immanent unease that prevents contentment with certainties.

Cycle 15 · 13 Apr 2026Language and thought: the case of Lavoisier

6:39The philosopher deals less with the thing than with the words by which we speak of it; his fundamental question is "what do you call?".
23:25What is properly philosophical is inquiry: there is a truth, but it is never immediate.
53:28In asking "what must I do?", philosophy presupposes freedom; its whole destiny is suspended on the possibility of freedom.

Cycle 13 · 27 May 2025Flagrante Delights

1:06:28Questioning the words that serve as our mediation with reality; a problem is a question without an immediate answer, nor one by yes or no.
1:10:51It is not "what is a star?" but "what do you call a star?".

Cycle 12 · 14 Aug 2024Too late?

7:57Distinct from wisdoms, philosophy does not question things but words: it asks "what do you call a war?" and not "what is a war?"

Cycle 11 · 13 Nov 2022Dialectics of hesitation and decision

13:13Philosophy, specific from Socrates onward, is distinct from Eastern thought, which is older and deeper.
28:31Philosophy is nothing but the effort to look more closely at what is said in the heat of action.

Talks · 14 Jul 2022From Plato to world revolution

10:31Distinct from thought in general: Socrates inaugurates a properly philosophical way of posing problems.
19:52Begins when "what is?" gives way to "what do you call?": the question bears on words, no longer on things.

Cycle 10 · 7 Jul 2022#16 Michel Clouscard: “There are no holidays in the concept!”

42:09Philosophy consists in making habitual concepts problematic: by repeating words too often, one comes to believe they are things.
51:14The philosopher does not point a finger at people, he points a finger at discourses.

Cycle 10 · 10 Jun 2022#14 Caves of yesterday and today: from Plato to modernity

29:04The philosopher wants the mathematician's rigor without leaving everyday language, hence a difficulty.
1:36:33He does not stand above the poet and the mathematician: he strives to reconcile the poet's fidelity to affects with the mathematician's rigor.

Cycle 10 · 20 Sept 2021Presentation of the 2021-2022 workshops and association membership

9:31On femininity and community, he proposes an approach that is neither societal nor merely social, but properly philosophical.

Cycle 9.2 · 28 Apr 2021#9.20 From signal to sign: Einstein

48:56Replacing "what is it?" with "what do you call it?": one addresses someone, and the word becomes a predicate.
56:40The philosopher is the median figure of a trio with the mathematician and the poet; their relation to language forms the unity of the three.

Cycle 9.2 · 4 Mar 2021#9.16 How can sciences of history be real?

22:34It begins with the radical question "what do you call...?", which concerns the words by which things are designated.
36:57It does not begin with the cognitive: Socrates brings it down from the sky to the earth.
1:34:43Philosophy is the daughter of crisis: as long as things work, one can ignore its questions.

Series · 17 Dec 2020#7 The Greeks, myth and music

7:34Philosophy is not a science but a discipline, with its own rules, which requires epistemic humility.

Talks · 24 Nov 2020Between sea and mountain, the standing stones of Valinco (the Corsican Neolithic)

6:01Philosophy begins with the word: it does not interrogate the star but the astronomer, "what do you call a black hole?"

Cycle 7 · 26 Apr 2020#6 Harnessed to confinitude

2:21Not a science nor coffee-shop chat: a rigorous discipline that puts opinions and words to the test and turns the question back toward the subject.

Talks · 21 Sept 2019Pagani without detours

14:30A discipline, neither science nor opinion, to be distinguished from what it can be confused with: religion, science, poetry.
25:25Its specificity is to answer the question "what must I do" in the mode of knowledge rather than opinion.

Series · 23 Aug 2019M. Clouscard's reply to C. Morilhat (1987)

35:28It sets mathematical discourse and poetic speech back to back: the rigor of mathematics and the metaphorical richness of natural language.
41:39Axiological concern: a logic of the subject according to "know thyself," hence necessarily dialectical.

Cycle 5.2 · 26 May 2019#5.7 Nature or landscape?

47:09Philosophy begins when the question bears on words; it seeks to answer "what must I do?" on the mode of knowledge, not opinion.
51:21A practical question posed on a cognitive mode: this contradiction is why every philosophy begins by limping.

Series · 2 May 2019Michel Foucault

32:36It has been specific since Socrates: the problem is not the thing but the word that designates it ("what do you call...?").
36:28The dream of every philosopher is to put an end to it; those who declared it superseded have prompted the most philosophical reflection.

Cycle 4 · 24 Sept 2017#4.0 Presentation of the 2017-2018 workshop: Nerval's “Angélique”

12:14Since Plato, philosophy is the shadow of the political, its shadow theater; the philosophical exploitation of a text is therefore political.

Cycle 2 · 1 Aug 2017#2.8 Between crisis and war: philosophising?

3:45Sophia means knowledge and wisdom; the philosopher answers the question "what must I do?" in the mode of a knowledge, not of an opinion.

Series · 8 Dec 2015Michel Clouscard, the paths of praxis (1/2)

6:26In the strict sense, philosophy runs from Socrates to Hegel. In the broad sense, it answers to "know thyself," which Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud deepen outside the philosophical field.
46:10The sciences have freed themselves from it; what remains proper to it is the question "what must I do?", to which it responds on the mode of science rather than opinion.
54:00Philosophy always comes too late: it thinks a world only once its formation is complete.