Démocrite

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani often returns to a phrase of Democritus: "nothing exists but atoms and the void", everything else being only a combination of atoms1. He sees it as a rigorous position for its time, one that required extraordinary audacity, and he makes Democritus the first great materialist2. He also presents him as the first to form the hypothesis of the indivisible atom and to dare to formulate chance3. He recalls that his work is lost and is known through fragments, through Aristotle's quotations and through Diogenes Laertius. Democritus comes up mainly in connection with Marx's thesis, which sets him against Epicurus: Marx is an atomist, but not a Democritean4. Dominique Pagani also associates him with the difference between continuous and discontinuous, which he illustrates with the violin and the keyboard. Finally, he suggests that Democritus's view of the atom may be more idealist than Leibniz's idealism5.

1. 1De Platon à la révolution mondiale par Dominique Pagani14 Jul 2022 · 5:23
2. 2De Copernic à Lénine: Révolution !28 Aug 2026 · 1:15:19
3. 3Musicosophie 15. Platon, Rouseau, Hegel et la musique9 Feb 2021 · 11:47
4. 4Ce soir, on repolitise. 2ème partie31 Mar 2018 · 1:48:21
5. 5Cynisme de l'extrême centre ou héroïsme épistémique ? La dialectique du milieu • Dominique Pagani20 May 2021 · 37:44

Summary produced automatically from 27 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.