Historical present

présent historique

Worked through in 12 videos · 16 passages.

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani makes the historical present the limit and the unsurpassable horizon of thought. He links the word horizon to horos, determination1. Taking up the idea that everyone is a child of their time, he holds that it is the epoch that expresses itself through us, all the more so when we are not aware of it2. Philosophy sums up its time in thought3. He distinguishes the epoch from current events and from editorials: it is the hardest thing to think, and everyone lags behind it4. To be in error is to remain in the past, or to head off toward a utopian future, falling short of what one's present allows5 6. He also compares this present to an asymptote that one can move closer to or further from7. He shows that authors who believe they are speaking of origins, of Africa or of the Orient are in fact speaking of their own present: the robinsonades, as opposed to Marx, who studies capital, or the authors of the Kulturkampf8 9. At the root of this unconscious projection he places class determination10. Today, this present is for him the unchallenged domination of globalized capital since the fall of the Berlin Wall11.

Summary produced automatically from 16 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

Series · 31 Mar 2021A balance in nature? • Philosophical Q&A • Dominique Pagani

37:42It is the historical present, unconsciously, that projects itself onto the past; at the bottom of this unconscious lies class determination.

Season 9.2 · 4 Mar 20219 #16 How can sciences of history be real?

50:49Marx studies his historical present, capital; the Robinsonades believe they are thinking the past and unwittingly think the present.

Series · 28 Jan 2021Musicosophy 12. Nietzsche (right up) against Wagner

1:46:40Believing they speak of Africa or the Orient, these authors speak of their own historical present, here the Kulturkampf.

Season 6 · 19 Feb 2020#6.5 • The Logic of the Subject in the face of the reconstitution of Nazism

2:14Horizon beyond which philosophical inquiry has no relevance; one is more often in the past or in a utopian future.

Series · 10 Sept 2019D. Pagani / M. Clouscard's reply to C. Morilhat • Part Two

48:53Limit and horizon of the thought of each era: it determines schools behind their backs and the categories with which past and future are imagined.

Season 5.2 · 26 May 2019#5.7 Nature or Landscape?

1:28:34Every philosophy is a child of its time: the historical present is the limit, like an asymptote, that one may approach or move away from.
1:43:29Beethoven's Ninth brings the voice up for the ode to fraternity: music joins the historical fractures of the time.

Season 4 · 4 Feb 2018#4.4B Objections to Dominique Pagani

0:32Knowing it is essential; it is the undivided domination of capital, globalized and globalizing, since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Season 2 · 18 Feb 2016#2.3 Between crisis and war: Philosophising?

1:20:59Each is a son of his time and philosophy sums up its time in thought: the historical present is the limit of philosophical thought.

Season 2 · 15 Feb 2016#2.1 Between crisis and war: Philosophising?

4:08Neither current events nor the editorial, but the epoch; the most difficult thing to think, a limit on which everyone is always behind.
1:41:58Unsurpassable horizon of thought; restoring the historical genesis allows the apories to be lifted.

Season 2 · 15 Feb 2016#2.2 Between crisis and war: Philosophising?

1:36Every philosopher, believing he thinks the future or origins, reflects his historical present, the unsurpassable horizon of his thought, which we often fail to fully think through.
33:08The horizon, from horos, determination: modernity is the unsurpassable content of our thought.

Series · 1 Feb 2016Hegel on the Beach 2/5

8:06The present time is the limit of thought; to be in error is to remain in the past, short of the possibilities of one's present.
11:46The determinations of the historical present curve thought like a tropism.

Series · 1 Feb 2016Hegel on the Beach 1/5

2:31:31Everyone is a child of his time: it is our time that speaks through us, all the more so as we are unaware of it.