Darwin

Summary

Dominique Pagani refers to Darwin mainly for the theory of evolution and the gradual passage from nature to man1. He points out that this theory was accepted only little by little2. He counts it among the "wounds" dealt to mankind: we come from the ape. He sees it as a gain to be defended today, along with Galileo and Newton3. He sets a limit, however: evolution exists, but it is not history4. In the same way, linking the smile to the teeth that mammals bare is right as to the material, but reductive5. On the struggle for life, he considers it mistaken to set mutual aid against the "struggle for life", since Darwin had seen the threshold at which mutual aid favours evolution6. The struggle for life presupposes solidarity, without which the human species would not have survived7. He links Darwin with Malthus and places him in the same positivist century as Freud. He also thinks that Hegel, had he known Darwin, would have given the dialectic of nature more room8.

1. 1#1.4 Between crisis and war: philosophising?10 Dec 2015 · 1:28:03
2. 2#4 Harnessed to confinitude11 Apr 2020 · 31:07
3. 3#11 Modal and tonal music24 Jan 2021 · 15:43
4. 4Is history a subject?9 Mar 2017 · 26:13
5. 5#1.4 Between crisis and war: philosophising?10 Dec 2015 · 46:30
6. 6“What threatens societies are the men and women who benefit from the exploitation of others”12 Mar 2019 · 1:34:02
7. 7#7 The Greeks, myth and music17 Dec 2020 · 59:15
8. 8Tonight, we repoliticise (part 2)31 Mar 2018 · 1:26:47

Summary produced automatically from 15 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.