Summary Dominique Pagani sees Michel Foucault as a leading actor in the ideological counter-revolution of the late 1960s, one who helped to de-Marxify the university1 . He often comes back to the thesis of The Order of Things (Les Mots et les Choses): man is a recent invention bound to disappear. He sees in it an anti-humanism aimed at man, the universal and progress. He considers the reading of Descartes in the History of Madness dishonest: Foucault cuts off the passage on madmen before Descartes puts himself on a par with the insane through dreaming2 . Against the microphysics of power, he objects that a power that is everywhere is nowhere and has no unit of measure3 . He links him with Deleuze in a reading of Nietzsche close to Callicles. With Clouscard, he turns the "great confinement" against the binary metre of rock. He nonetheless credits him with the title Les Mots et les Choses, a talent as an archaeologist of shifts in meaning, and the remark "Mitterrand is Vichy"4 .
1 “Speech is the best and the worst of things” (Aesop) 19 Oct 2022 · 45:21 2 #10.7 “Postmodern” eco-petty-Nazism: Plato's Gorgias 23 Dec 2021 · 1:57:53 3 Tribute to Domenico Losurdo 2 Jul 2018 · 20:36 4 Left-washing: are the woke the most asleep? 17 Nov 2021 · 8:27 Summary produced automatically from 129 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.
Who is this? Paul-Michel Foucault, known as Michel Foucault, (UK: FOO-koh, US: foo-KOH; French:; 15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984) was a French philosopher, literary critic, and historian of ideas who analyzed the relationships between power, knowledge, and liberty, and how they are used as a form of social control through institutions. Sometimes called a structuralist or postmodernist, he rejected these labels and sought to critique authority without limiting himself. […]
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Talks · 5 Oct 2020 Calves and Things (2): ecologism, the highest stage of capitalism?0:00 The Order of Things Shown in an interview where he says that man is a recent invention, a historically situated figure.8:07 The Order of Things A structuralist book, one of whose conclusions is that we no longer have words for things, hence its relativist theses.15:07 Declared man a recent invention destined to disappear: this is the collusion with ecologist anti-humanism. 21:32 Neither ecologist nor communist but neoliberal; his anticommunism passes for subversive; he is promoted as an influential intellectual after 1968. 30:44 Compared to the sophists: he seeks to please his audience rather than truth. Series · 2 May 2019 Michel Foucault5:13 Ideological blindness in a cultivated man; he establishes a break with all his predecessors, Sartre included. 16:59 An emblematic thinker of '68, one of the main architects of the discrediting of historicism; he prefers space to history. 35:51 His best side is that of the archaeologist, attentive to shifts in the meaning of words, such as from sovereignty to population. 43:29 He only goes after progressive currents of thought; his trial of man has a precedent under the Third Reich. 1:09:14 The death of man implies the reign of necessity, which is troubling because it is coherent. Cycle 10 · 23 Dec 2021 #10.7 “Postmodern” eco-petty-Nazism: Plato's Gorgias19:26 Clever man one can talk with, a Nietzschean reference. 1:52:26 Dominant ideology that came at the right time to de-Marxize the world. 1:57:53 History of Madness in the Classical Age Dishonest: he cuts Descartes's passage on madmen before the self-humiliation of the dream.2:06:31 His most intelligent sentence: "Mitterrand is Vichy." Series · 27 Sept 2014 #5 Libertarian liberalism, libidinal consumption and music…7:35 He only takes up the most marginal causes and has contributed to intimidating social criticism. 30:39 Linked to irrationalist doctrine; he wrote a work fervently defending hardline liberalism. Cycle 14 · 29 Aug 2025 State and state apparatus: the conflict between public and private17:50 cited positively for once, anticommunist, for his phrase "Mitterrand is Vichy." Cycle 12 · 24 Jun 2024 For a “fresh and joyful” apocalypse?26:26 Mentioned in connection with the biological reduction of memory. 1:33:21 At the head of the theoretical counter-revolution, but author of an accurate phrase: "Mitterrand is Vichy." Cycle 12 · 28 Feb 2024 Clouscard by you: answers to your questions2:00:47 Still very influential through French Theory; he did everything to de-Marxize the university. Cycle 11 · 3 Sept 2023 Worldliness in Clouscard: desiring what? Through whom?2:10:29 Among those for whose benefit the university was de-Marxified. 2:19:35 The Order of Things Man is a recent creation destined to disappear: a thesis incompatible with Marxism.Talks · 27 Mar 2023 Praxis and psyche50:23 Neo-Kantian whose relativism denies progress; exploits the Kantian limit for a regression. Cycle 10 · 8 Dec 2021 #10.6 War and peace: “The death drives advance in silence…” (Freud)1:06:10 The Order of Things "Man is a recent invention" destined to disappear: everything has been done to prove him right.Series · 17 Nov 2021 Left-washing: are the woke the most asleep?8:27 A paragon of the ideological counter-revolution of the '70s, but for once Pagani cites him favorably: Foucault said "Mitterrand is Vichy." Series · 14 Jul 2021 Everything is allowed, nothing is possible! Michel Clouscard, May 68 and the capitalism of seduction20:24 Theoretical spokesman of the cultural revolution of 68. 21:28 Interlocutor of the government for the creation of Vincennes. 37:56 Clouscard turns the "great confinement" around: it is the binary meter of rock that confines youth. Series · 14 Jul 2021 Everything's allowed, but nothing is possible! Michel Clouscard, May 68, French theory and capitalism20:15 Inevitable theoretical spokesman of the cultural revolution of 68; he takes part in founding Vincennes. 37:56 Clouscard turns his own "great confinement" back on him: the true confinement is the binary meter of rock. Cycle 9.2 · 27 May 2021 #9.22 Science and/or philosophy of “artificial intelligence” (part 2)1:06:38 He is criticized for excluding madmen; wrongly, since Descartes at once equates himself with the insane through the dream. Talks · 6 Oct 2020 Calves and Things (3): the dictatorship of the bobotariat0:00 The Order of Things Projected excerpt from an interview: man would be a historically situated figure, an invention of our culture.9:13 The Order of Things Diverted title, taken up in the title of the book, "Les Veaux et les choses" ("Calves and Things").18:05 Cited by a participant at the starting point of a movement of expansion of capitalism. 33:29 Presented as explicitly claiming liberal ideology. Cycle 6 · 8 Jan 2020 #6.3 The logic of the subject in the face of the reconstitution of Nazism53:32 The Order of Things Rightly marks the break: having the word is not having the thing.Cycle 6 · 23 Oct 2019 #6.1 The logic of the subject1:38:45 Everything would be a search for power; but power has no unit of measure, a counter-example of the illegitimate passage to natural language. Cycle 5.1 · 13 Jan 2019 #5.3 bis Questions (Facebook Live)21:11 Making power the law that governs everything dilutes power, and there is no measurable unit of power. Cycle 5.1 · 31 Dec 2018 #5.3 The philosopher's Odyssey: revolutionary thought49:28 His reading of Descartes as excluding madmen is a bad-faith misreading, since he knew the rest of the meditation. Talks · 6 Oct 2018 On Marx24:43 The Order of Things Mentor of postmodernity: man is a recent creation destined to disappear.36:08 Cited with Onfray and Nietzsche among those who restore the ideology of the strongest. Talks · 2 Jul 2018 Tribute to Domenico Losurdo20:36 If power is everywhere, as in his microphysics of power, it is nowhere: no determinate negation is possible. 1:01:19 His thesis of man as a recent invention destined to disappear. Cycle 4 · 18 Oct 2017 #4.1 Angélique (by Nerval)45:10 History of Madness in the Classical Age He rightly saw that people were interned not to be cured but to isolate whoever was judged dangerous.Cycle 2 · 1 Aug 2017 #2.8 Between crisis and war: philosophising?51:08 Power everywhere dilutes political power; he asks what the unit of measurement of power is. Cycle 2 · 1 Aug 2017 #2.7 Between crisis and war: philosophising?45:11 The Order of Things Man, a recent invention we are about to get rid of: the death of man.1:19:38 For him reason is the beginning of the gulag. Cycle 3 · 1 Aug 2017 #3.1 From Ulysses to Daedalus16:46 Man, a recent creation of which we will be rid: example of the cursed triangle man, universal, progress. 1:18:03 The Order of Things Title paraphrased: the word remains when the thing has disappeared.Cycle 2 · 10 Mar 2016 #2.4 Between crisis and war: philosophising?48:19 History of Madness in the Classical Age His thesis of the great confinement rests on a single passage about madmen and rushes to make Descartes the champion of reason.Cycle 2 · 18 Feb 2016 #2.3 Between crisis and war: philosophising?1:34:19 "All men desire power": a statement with no unit of measure, unlike Newton's law. Series · 2 Feb 2016 Hegel on the Beach 3/51:44:26 History of Madness in the Classical Age Truncates Descartes's text to see in it the exclusion of madmen: this is dishonest.Series · 1 Feb 2016 Hegel on the Beach 2/51:01:58 History of Madness in the Classical Age Makes Descartes the sanction of the great confinement, reason becoming a prison.1:23:59 His enemy is not capitalism but power in general. Series · 1 Feb 2016 Hegel on the Beach 1/52:37:38 Man would be a recent invention destined to disappear: anti-humanist thought. Cycle 1 · 14 Sept 2015 #1.3 Between crisis and war: philosophising?30:09 Man would be a recent invention destined to disappear: a philosophy posited as anti-humanism. 54:35 With Deleuze, turns Nietzsche into a great stripper of illusions. Series · 6 Jul 2012 Radio Galère: Michel Clouscard (1)38:47 The Order of Things The publisher criticizes his misreadings of the Great Confinement and his concept of power, which explains nothing.Series · 29 Jan 2012 Everything is allowed but nothing is possible: Michel Clouscard (2)42:11 He turns the expression "great confinement" back against itself: the real confinement is that of binary metrics since the Marshall Plan. Cycle 14 · 21 Oct 2025 The silences of the media uproar: the Atlanticist re-Nazification29:20 Cited among the structuralists. Cycle 13 · 2 Dec 2024 Evil, or the “unknowing” of the self6:07 Through him Nietzsche is misread. Cycle 12 · 14 Aug 2024 Too late?34:57 Mentioned along with the biopolitical, regarding biologism. Cycle 12 · 30 May 2024 From fidelity to grace: from substance to subject45:06 Cited among the neo-Spinozists of the Cold War. Talks · 23 Mar 2024 Sahelian Africa and imperialism: Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger1:31:18 Cited among the Nietzscheans of neo-paganism. Cycle 12 · 12 Dec 2023 “I is another”, or contradictory identity1:16:30 He pauses in passing on madmen, where Descartes passes over them. Talks · 29 May 2023 From the debauchery of sense to the orgy of sentiment10:22 The Order of Things The best of Foucault is perhaps his title: the word is not the thing.Cycle 11 · 3 Mar 2023 War, neo-fascism: libertarian liberalism1:02:49 His remark "Mitterrand is Vichy" is recommended. 1:17:44 Cited within the gauchiste school of French philosophy. Series · 7 Feb 2023 Nietzsche, or the Great Ninny0:52 Cited among the hyper-Nietzscheans of the counter-revolution. Cycle 11 · 14 Jan 2023 Beware of misreadings! Clouscard and the ideology of desire, in homage to Le Précepteur46:27 Convicts and minorities as subjects of opposition: "finally, Foucault." Series · 3 Jan 2023 Why is Clouscard indispensable?9:10 He is one of Clouscard's favorite targets and an actor of the ideological counter-revolution. He is quoted once positively: "Mitterrand is Vichy." Cycle 11 · 23 Nov 2022 The aporias of anthropology31:51 The Order of Things His title is the best thing about him; he served a function in the counter-revolution.Cycle 11 · 19 Oct 2022 “Speech is the best and the worst of things” (Aesop)45:21 Among those who inaugurated the great counter-revolution of the late sixties. Cycle 11 · 14 Oct 2022 Clouscard and the problem of Socrates1:37:23 The Order of Things Title that states a dichotomy.Series · 5 Mar 2022 Panzer-philosophy against the cogito: neo-fascism or the ideology of nature (Heidegger, Descartes)4:15 Cited among the sacralized figures. Cycle 10 · 27 Jan 2022 #8 Philosophising under threat1:22:40 The shift from ecological discourse to sanitary discourse is a successful biopolitics. Cycle 9.2 · 28 Apr 2021 #9.20 From signal to sign: Einstein48:04 Mentioned among the philosophies that were not to be defended. Series · 31 Mar 2021 “Red-browns”, “decolonial”: should we use the dominant language?59:59 Pagani places him among the "French doctors," a counter-revolutionary philosophy born in the wake of '68. 1:38:56 His thought is found again in Mbembe. Series · 31 Mar 2021 Wagner and his interpreters, approaching Clouscard, Marx = Theseus?49:37 Another opponent of Clouscard's in Critique du libéralisme libertaire. Talks · 16 Jan 2021 The world before, the world after (part 2)44:17 went after the accursed triangle: man, the universal, progress Series · 3 Dec 2020 #4 Sound ghettos5:58 History of Madness in the Classical Age His formula of the great confinement, taken up and inverted; allusion to his mescaline experiences in California.Talks · 4 Oct 2020 Calves and Things: the preface40:12 The Order of Things Play on words: "now we have the words and the things."Talks · 24 Sept 2020 Arendt and Heidegger: the destruction of thought55:54 Cited for the notion that man is a "recent creation" destined to disappear. Cycle 7 · 5 May 2020 #7 Harnessed to confinitude1:37:02 Nietzschean mentor of contemporary ideology. Cycle 7 · 26 Apr 2020 #6 Harnessed to confinitude59:57 Reduced reading of Descartes, accused of setting aside madness in favor of a totalitarian reason. Cycle 7 · 11 Apr 2020 #4 Harnessed to confinitude45:33 Among the Nietzscheans of the Cold War. Cycle 7 · 4 Apr 2020 #3 Harnessed to confinitude16:50 The Order of Things Man there is a recent invention destined to disappear.18:59 Said one intelligent sentence: "Mitterrand is Vichy." Cycle 7 · 30 Mar 2020 #2 Harnessed to confinitude8:55 Cited among the standpoints from which one can philosophize. Cycle 6 · 30 Jan 2020 #6.4 The logic of the subject in the face of the reconstitution of Nazism25:28 Same anti-progress program. 1:02:10 Proust is more Marxist than Foucault. Cycle 6 · 3 Dec 2019 #6.2 The logic of the subject in the face of the reconstitution of Nazism6:30 His themes are already found in Nazi philosophers' propaganda, without him being a Nazi himself. Cycle 6 · 10 Nov 2019 #6.1 Prelude: Lacan, “Function and field of speech and language”44:57 He cites the passage on madmen to date the great confinement, feigning to forget the sequel where Descartes humbles himself. 1:10:01 Cited among the authors of the structuralist attack on universalism. Talks · 21 Sept 2019 Pagani without detours7:37 Has attacked humanism in recent decades. 20:41 Mentioned with humor regarding words and things. Series · 10 Sept 2019 M. Clouscard's reply to C. Morilhat (part 2)40:06 A major signifier of the phenomenology of the bourgeoisie. Series · 23 Aug 2019 M. Clouscard's reply to C. Morilhat (1987)1:17:09 Said "we are all neo-Kantians." Cycle 5.2 · 26 Mar 2019 #5.5 Nature or landscape?27:12 A text criticizing humanism, which Pagani wants to comment on. Talks · 13 Feb 2019 Hegel and the yellow vests (part 1)1:37:41 "To make society": expression of individualist thought, arising with the counter-revolution. Cycle 5.1 · 15 Oct 2018 #5.0 Presentation of the 2018-2019 workshop19:18 Cited in the counter-revolutionary philosophical offensive of the late 1960s. Series · 5 Jul 2018 Being and Code1:24:45 "We are all neo-kantians": an imposture, inferior to Kant. 1:32:11 The speaker: with him, neo-kantianism becomes above all morality. Cycle 4 · 14 Jun 2018 #4.9 Angélique (by Nerval)1:34:13 Cited alongside Deleuze and Derrida as readers of Nietzsche. Talks · 12 Jun 2018 In conversation with Bernard Friot (1 June 2018)2:00:15 "Man is a recent invention" destined to disappear: a troubling convergence. Talks · 20 May 2018 Work and the right to work25:55 Man as a recent invention destined to disappear, an example of Parisian antihumanism. Talks · 31 Mar 2018 Tonight, we repoliticise (part 2)1:45:39 Sartre's successor, targeted by the same critique. 2:01:50 "Discipline and Punish" is invoked regarding police-like unity. Talks · 12 Mar 2018 Tonight, we repoliticise (part 1)1:13:47 Pagani calls him a 'sophist' of the 1960s-70s and attributes to him the question of 'making society.' Cycle 4 · 12 Nov 2017 #4.2 Angélique (by Nerval)0:30 Cited among the authors of the syllabus. Cycle 3 · 1 Aug 2017 #3.5 From Ulysses to Daedalus1:01:47 What Is Enlightenment? Poses the question of the Enlightenment.Cycle 3 · 1 Aug 2017 #3.2 From Ulysses to Daedalus1:46:55 Among those who speak in Nietzsche's place. Cycle 2 · 1 Aug 2017 #2.6 Between crisis and war: philosophising?1:50:12 His thought fights against man, the universal and progress. Talks · 17 Jun 2017 Adotevi: Negritude and negrologists (1)51:15 History of Madness in the Classical Age Book borrowed by Sankara from Adotevi.Talks · 8 Jun 2017 Adotevi: Negritude and negrologists (2017)49:50 The Order of Things "Man is a recent invention": example of the ideology that repudiates man.Series · 2 Aug 2016 With Clouscard42:31 Cited among the fashionable master thinkers opposed to Clouscard. Talks · 18 Jun 2016 At the bistro (part 1)25:54 Cited in Onfray's liberal-libertarian philosophy. 34:25 Postmodern thought fights man and humanism. Cycle 2 · 15 Feb 2016 #2.1 Between crisis and war: philosophising?16:57 Cited among the hyper-Nietzscheans of contemporary ideology. Series · 29 Jan 2016 What is to be done? 2/31:26 The power in the triangle is not power in the Foucauldian sense. Series · 8 Dec 2015 Michel Clouscard, the paths of praxis (1/2)17:59 Classed among the aesthete fine minds against whom Clouscard is a Huron. Cycle 1 · 14 Sept 2015 #1.2 Between crisis and war: philosophising?1:02 Cited among philosophers whom one would like to oppose to others. 23:30 He spread, in the 1970s, together with Deleuze, a reading of Nietzsche that takes up Callicles. Series · 8 Jan 2015 Y for Yonville9:40 This anti-aesthetic Nietzsche is not to be found in him. Series · 3 Jan 2015 T for Triangle4:07 Associated with the attack on man and on the universal. Series · 25 Dec 2014 K for Karl6:39 Among the ideologues who came onto the scene after '68. Series · 22 Dec 2014 H for Hegel11:07 Among the main opponents of Hegel on the left after '68. Series · 21 Dec 2014 G for Gauche (the Left)7:21 For him, man is a recent invention that is going to be done away with; historically not false, but politically monstrous. Series · 20 Sept 2014 #2 Rousseau, a world that begins32:38 Designated by Clouscard as a neo-fascist. Series · 7 Jul 2012 Radio Galère: Michel Clouscard (2)0:00 Power with a capital P: a hollow abstraction. 42:09 Associated with Deleuze in the thought of flows. 
Talks · 5 Oct 2020Calves and Things (2): ecologism, the highest stage of capitalism?
