Montesquieu

Summary

Dominique Pagani returns above all to the preface of The Spirit of the Laws: men are not guided by their fancy alone, and in every age the laws correspond to something1. He sees Montesquieu as one of the first sociologists, who looks for what is objective in the laws and takes history into account. He recalls that Hegel admired him for showing that there is reason in the diversity of laws2. He also credits him, through climate and geographical situation, with the first strictly materialist determination, still a naturalist one. He considers this thinker too neglected, while warning against a reductive reading of this geographical materialism34. For him, Montesquieu opens the Enlightenment together with Bayle, along with the revival of the critical movement. On the other hand, he finds no aesthetic reflection in his work. He mentions the Persian Letters, fake letters that serve as a pretext for philosophising. Depending on the session, he gives Montesquieu's scientific hobby as chemistry or as physics.

1. 1#2.2 Between crisis and war: philosophising?15 Feb 2016 · 1:26:43
2. 2Hegel on the Beach 4/52 Feb 2016 · 18:27
3. 3#8 Happiness and unhappiness in music11 Jan 2021 · 1:06:05
4. 4#10.5 The figure of Antigone, such as into herself at last…24 Nov 2021 · 29:16

Summary produced automatically from 28 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.