Dominique Pagani links Bernard Friot to the question "what is to be done?": in his view, Friot's proposals on wages give concrete answers to it1. What he mainly takes from him is the thesis of a communist or revolutionary "already-there" in the gains of 1945-1947 and in the CNR programme, of which Friot would be the best connoisseur23. He sums up his position as nominalist and anti-substantialist: it is the wage, as a contractual institution, that makes an activity into work4. At their 2018 meeting, he presents him as a philosopher "without knowing it", because he questions words and shows the religious character of the discourse on debt5. As examples he gives the distinction between the old-age minimum and pay-as-you-go pensions, as well as Friot's arguments against the idea that retirees are inactive. He also mentions a question Friot asked him about dialectics: asking it that way, he says, is already starting to doubt it. He calls him a respected comrade, while noting disagreements on societal issues6.
Summary produced automatically from 27 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.
Who is this?
Bernard Friot is a French sociologist and economist. He is (since 2009) an emeritus professor of Sociology, and previously taught at Paris West University Nanterre La Défense. He's been a member of the French Communist Party (PCF) since 1970. He began his academic career in 1971 at the University Institutes of Technology of the University of Lorraine as an assistant and then as a lecturer in economics. His economics PhD thesis relates to the building up of the French social security system between 1920 and 1980. […]
47:50Philosopher without knowing it: he distinguishes the minimum old-age pension from pay-as-you-go retirement, proof of the stakes involved in words.
Talks · 12 Jun 2018In conversation: Dominique Pagani - Bernard Friot - 1 June 2018
