Copernic

Summary

Dominique Pagani treats Copernicus as the standard example of a way out of an illusion1. In his view, the Copernican revolution does not simply replace the false with the true: it restores the inverse of the geocentric illusion. Here the false appears as the reverse of the true, and the subject has an interest in its error, so that a revolution is needed to get out of it23. He sees in it a reversal of how we relate to sight: conceiving before seeing, making the spectator turn rather than the stars. It is this symbol that Kant takes up in his own Copernican revolution4. He also speaks of the first collective narcissistic wound: man is no longer at the centre but revolves on the periphery56. He insists on attributing heliocentrism to Copernicus rather than to Galileo7. Commenting on *On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres*, he points out that Copernicus enlarges the bubble of the world but still conceives the universe as finite8. Finally, he cites the "pre-Copernican" model to describe certain present-day political analyses.

1. 1#5.2 bis Questions (Facebook Live)6 Dec 2018 · 26:39
2. 2Y for Yonville8 Jan 2015 · 8:21
3. 3#4.4 Angélique (by Nerval)15 Jan 2018 · 47:00
4. 4#1.6 Between crisis and war: philosophising?10 Dec 2015 · 1:14:37
5. 5“What threatens societies are the men and women who benefit from the exploitation of others”12 Mar 2019 · 49:22
6. 6Nature vs. freedom?8 Oct 2026 · 1:27:30
7. 7#9.17 The geopolitical metaphor: Planck, Descartes, Clouscard17 Mar 2021 · 27:59
8. 8#9.11 How can sciences of history be real?7 Jan 2021 · 1:26:48

Summary produced automatically from 20 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.