Prométhée

Summary

Dominique Pagani often returns to the myth of Prometheus for one central idea: man is born from a minus. Left naked by Epimetheus, without claws or natural defence, he owes his superiority to this very lack, which the fire stolen from the gods turns into strength12. He reads this fire as negativity, knowledge and the concept3, and also as intelligence, the forge and technē; he sees in it, in the literal sense as well as in the sense of the Enlightenment, the universal that allows man to go beyond his limits4. He often links the myth to the tower of Babel: in both cases, the one who seeks to make man equal to the gods is punished, and he concludes that "myths think one another"5. He also makes Prometheus the Greek equivalent of Cain, the ancestor of Daedalus and of engineers. He stresses the prophecy of the chained Titan, which announces men's revenge on Zeus6. Finally, he reads the titans as labour power facing the idle gods, and Prometheus's emancipation as that of the slave. He notes that Clouscard made him a figure of praxis.

1. 1#9.21 Science and/or philosophy of “artificial intelligence”12 May 2021 · 1:43:08
2. 2“I is another”, or contradictory identity12 Dec 2023 · 1:49:31
3. 3Z for Zero9 Jan 2015 · 7:08
4. 4#12 From Kafka to Proust, the dialectical passage from the intermezzo to the perpetuated edge7 Apr 2022 · 2:06:57
5. 5Michel Foucault2 May 2019 · 58:38
6. 6#4 Benefits and harms of amnesia…13 Nov 2020 · 1:12:16

Summary produced automatically from 34 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.