Buffon

Summary

Dominique Pagani mainly mentions Buffon in connection with natural history. He credits him with being the first to show that an entire animal can be reconstructed from a single organ, or even a single tooth. For him, this is the very principle of palaeontology, which he takes up in 2021 in a reflection on whether the sciences of history can be real1, and in other contexts in 2015 and 202223. He links this principle to a philosophical idea: in living beings, the whole is present in each part, a connection he draws in a session devoted to Hegel4. He also presents Buffon as the first to glimpse the great age of animal remains and the "antediluvian monsters". He sees in this the first seeds, or still sketchy hypotheses, of the theory of evolution, notably in sessions on Nerval567. Finally, he cites him once as the author of the phrase "style is the man himself"8.

1. 1#9.13 How can sciences of history be real?29 Jan 2021 · 35:16
2. 2#1.6 Between crisis and war: philosophising?10 Dec 2015 · 47:27
3. 3#9 Pictures at an Exhibition: art, seen from here or from the other side?10 Feb 2022 · 1:59:37
4. 4Hegel on the Beach 1/51 Feb 2016 · 1:33:05
5. 5#4.7 Angélique (by Nerval)12 Apr 2018 · 1:16:54
6. 6#3 Nomad or sedentary? The case of Nerval6 Jun 2021 · 47:46
7. 7A springtime of the peoples?18 Mar 2023 · 1:01:44
8. 8Michel Clouscard, the paths of praxis (1/2)8 Dec 2015 · 12:18

Summary produced automatically from 9 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.