Present

présent

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Summary

Dominique Pagani does not conceive of the present as a fixed point. Following Hegel, he stresses that the now "is already no longer when it is": it cannot be fixed, it is a negativity1. For him, the instant is not a point in space but a disappearance in time2. He describes the present as an edge between a past that is slow to flee and a future that is slow to emerge3. Hence the formula "there is no present": whoever proclaims himself his own contemporary conceals the gap between a past that has ceased and a future that is slow in coming4. From Proust he draws the persistence of the past in the present: the sobs of childhood have never ceased and make themselves heard again when life falls silent5. He also notes that whatever the starting point, a text or a musical example, one falls back on the most burning current events6.

Summary produced automatically from 6 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

Cycle 12 · 4 Jun 2024The matrix of all illusion: the past lived as present

1:26:53The instant is not a point in space but a disappearance in time; the now is already gone as soon as it is.
2:28:37In Proust, the sobs of childhood have never ceased: the past makes itself heard again when life falls silent.

Cycle 12 · 18 Feb 2024Secularism, the truth of religion?

1:26:56"There is no present": whoever proclaims himself his own contemporary masks the gap between a past that has ceased and a future that is slow in coming.

Cycle 10 · 7 Apr 2022#12 From Kafka to Proust, the dialectical passage from the intermezzo to the perpetuated edge

2:11:32The present is always an edge between a past slow to depart and a future slow to arise.

Cycle 9.2 · 29 Jan 2021#9.13 How can sciences of history be real?

29:03With Hegel, the now is already no longer when it is: it cannot be fixed, it is a negativity.

Cycle 7 · 26 Mar 2020#0 Harnessed to confinitude

6:49Starting from texts or musical examples does not lead to an escape into aestheticism: wherever one starts from, one falls back on the most burning current events.