Absolute knowledge

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani takes up Hegel's absolute knowledge, the endpoint of consciousness's journey in the Phenomenology, and sets aside the idea of a knowledge of all things. He sees it as a knowledge that reflects on itself, the reverse of neo-Kantianism, and that becomes accessible to all with modernity12. To reach it is to let earlier certainties collapse so that truth can prevail: no longer being able to believe that a god makes it rain, knowing oneself to have historical depth, understanding that destiny is up to man345. This knowledge involves a loss of substance and threatens psychic balance. For this reason, in his view, it is doubled by an absolute non-knowledge, which he likens to Freudian repression: a secret known to all that no one wants to know67. He follows its effects in Nerval and Rimbaud, with the collapse of the ideal self, and in modern art, which "knows too much" to paint like Fra Angelico. He also finds it in Brünnhilde, who says "I know everything," and in Kleist8.

1. 1Préface au mémoire de Simon Verdun, « La critique du néokantisme chez Michel Clouscard », soutenue à l’ENS DE Paris, sanctionnée par une mention très bien.5 Jul 2018 · 1:51:30
2. 2Ibn Battûta19 Feb 2020 · 37:40
3. 3#2 - Les Attelé(e)s de la Confinitude30 Mar 2020 · 28:17
4. 4#3 • Les Attelé(e)s de la confinitude4 Apr 2020 · 1:09:02
5. 5#4 • Les Attelé(e)s de la confinitude11 Apr 2020 · 15:33
6. 6#3 • Les Attelé(e)s de la confinitude4 Apr 2020 · 1:13:09
7. 7#5 • Les Attelé(e)s de la confinitude18 Apr 2020 · 15:59
8. 89 #19 Le Crépuscule des dieux ou de la répétition à la libération • Partie 214 Apr 2021 · 28:41

Summary produced automatically from 24 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.