Bachelard

Summary

Dominique Pagani cites Bachelard as a figure of the post-war French epistemological school1. He also presents him as a scientist who, unusually, philosophizes competently2. He owes to him the notion of epistemological break, which in his view Althusser diverted3, as well as the notion of epistemological obstacle, which he applies to ancient finalism4. He often takes up Bachelard's formulas: "science simplifies the real and complicates reason"5, "to be precise is to commit oneself", "I do not live in the infinite". He also takes up the contrast drawn in Le Rationalisme appliqué: philosophers throw arguments at each other, physicists exchange information6. Another idea he takes up: if the whole of an era's physics fitted in the library of Alexandria, it was because it was underdeveloped. On the Pythagorean theorem, he retains the idea of learning to work with nothing, like the gods. He also reads L'Eau et les Rêves, which he considers the richest of the series on the four elements. He retains from it the typology of waters and the swan, an image of narcissism and of a repressed nakedness7.

1. 1D for Desire17 Dec 2014 · 8:51
2. 2Neither left nor right? Islamo-leftism?17 Oct 2023 · 18:16
3. 3Everything is allowed but nothing is possible: Michel Clouscard (2)29 Jan 2012 · 13:46
4. 4#9.22 Science and/or philosophy of “artificial intelligence” (part 2)27 May 2021 · 1:31:03
5. 5#14 Caves of yesterday and today: from Plato to modernity10 Jun 2022 · 1:12:23
6. 6#2.6 Between crisis and war: philosophising?1 Aug 2017 · 8:38
7. 7From fidelity to grace: from substance to subject30 May 2024 · 55:22

Summary produced automatically from 43 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.