Cycle 11 · 22 Jul 2023Worldliness in Clouscard: the world as “cunning of reason”- 21:06The telos is what is not there, far off, like the sign "stop in 150 meters"; reflection on ends is called teleology.
Teleology
Worked through in 13 videos · 22 passages.
Summary
Dominique Pagani starts from the telos as what is not there: representing to oneself, beyond the here and now, what the thing is for, like the sign "stop in 150 metres"1. He notes that the notion has become repellent in Anglo-Saxon and post-modern thought, which links finalism to totality, then to the totalitarian, and sets it against science2. Against structuralism and neopositivism, he proposes not to abolish teleology but to put it back in its place3. Final causes inscribed in nature were ruined by the scientific revolution; finality remains legitimate in the human and historical world4. Neither the pebble nor God pursues an end: there is finality only in a being that is finite through its body and through death5. His recurring example is the house in the architect's head. He also concludes that a machine has no teleology of its own, and that speaking of its finality hides the finality of its designers.
- 1Worldliness in Clouscard: the world as “cunning of reason”22 Jul 2023 · 21:06
- 2#5.2 bis Questions (Facebook Live)6 Dec 2018 · 8:48
- 3#5.9 Kafka, “An Imperial Message”29 Jul 2019 · 27:57
- 4#2 Lenin, or the wings of dreams18 Apr 2021 · 38:26
- 5#5.2 ter Questions, following workshop #5.2 (Facebook Live)6 Dec 2018 · 39:48
Summary produced automatically from 22 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.
Cycle 11 · 22 Jul 2023Worldliness in Clouscard: the world as “cunning of reason”
Cycle 9.2 · 30 Jun 2021#9.24 “Ruled like music paper!” Nerval, Baudelaire (part 2)- 12:44Not the pre-Galilean providence inscribed in nature, but finalities proper to subjects.
Cycle 9.2 · 12 May 2021#9.21 Science and/or philosophy of “artificial intelligence”
Series · 18 Apr 2021#2 Lenin, or the wings of dreams- 35:17Telos, the end: to go beyond the here and now in order to represent what the thing is for.
- 38:26He rehabilitates a strictly anthropological teleology, distinct from the final causes ruined by the scientific revolution.
- 54:13Finality must be confined to the world of history and anthropology, and not imputed to things of nature.
Series · 15 Jan 2021#9 Romantic irony and the Vinteuil sonata- 1:28:42Teleology must be rehabilitated, not as finality in nature, but by explaining why finality was displaced into nature.
- 1:32:45Finality must be placed back where it is legitimate, in the human and historical world, against neopositivism.
- 1:38:37Teleology allows a dialectical reconciliation of chance and necessity, of freedom and determinism.
Cycle 5.2 · 29 Jul 2019#5.9 Kafka, “An Imperial Message”- 27:57The critique of Aristotelian finalism is carried through only by putting teleology back in its place, not by suppressing it as structuralism does.
Cycle 5.2 · 4 Feb 2019#5.4 Nature or landscape?- 42:42A finality immanent to every speech attitude; it is because language expresses finalities that philosophy cannot do without it.
Cycle 5.1 · 31 Dec 2018#5.3 The philosopher's Odyssey: revolutionary thought
Cycle 5.1 · 6 Dec 2018#5.2 bis Questions (Facebook Live)- 8:48A notion that has become repellent in post-modern thought: finalism would evoke organicity, totality, then the totalitarian, and would oppose science.
- 38:57Yes to the rehabilitation of the concept of end, on condition that it be inseparable from a subject finite in space through his body and in time through death.
Cycle 5.1 · 6 Dec 2018#5.2 ter Questions, following workshop #5.2 (Facebook Live)- 30:10Rehabilitating the end by inverting it: not a given already there, natural or divine, but an end that man assigns to himself, like the house in the architect's head.
- 39:48Finality is not suppressed but put back in its place: neither the stone nor God pursues an end, there is finality only in a finite being.
Cycle 5.1 · 21 Nov 2018#5.2 The philosopher's Odyssey: revolutionary thought- 1:40:16The dream that anticipates the present, like the house in the architect's head, shows that teleology is not a reactionary concept.
Cycle 4 · 12 Apr 2018#4.7 Angélique (by Nerval)- 1:37:12Despite the current prohibition, there is a finalistic order in historical and human affairs; that it may be an illusion changes nothing.
Cycle 1 · 10 Dec 2015#1.4 Between crisis and war: philosophising?