Feelings

Summary

Dominique Pagani approaches feelings from several angles. He first stresses their historical dimension: history has accumulated the material that forms the content of our affects, which cognitive science and naturalism neglect by ignoring praxis1. In literature, he makes them a criterion of classification: Romanticism expresses feelings, Impressionism sensations2. In Rousseau, he dwells on the "feeling of existence", neither pleasure nor pain, which fills the soul and makes it happy; stripped of every other affection, it is not a thought but a sensing34. Discussing artificial intelligence, he argues that the final decision is not rational in nature and that all reasoning comes down to yielding to feeling5. In 2022, speaking about Ukraine, he criticises instead the "mush of feeling": sentimentalism spares one from knowing the chain of causes and makes it possible to exploit compassion. He says he respects good feelings, but objects to stopping at feeling67.

1. 1Q for Quality31 Dec 2014 · 6:06
2. 2#4.6 Angélique (by Nerval)15 Mar 2018 · 53:43
3. 3#1 Benefits and harms of amnesia…8 Oct 2020 · 45:11
4. 4#1 Benefits and harms of amnesia…8 Oct 2020 · 52:08
5. 5#9.22 Science and/or philosophy of “artificial intelligence” (part 2)27 May 2021 · 1:19:38
6. 6#11 Ukraine: mathematics unites men, politics divides them (Aristotle)24 Mar 2022 · 50:12
7. 7#11 Ukraine: mathematics unites men, politics divides them (Aristotle)24 Mar 2022 · 1:08:34

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