Robespierre

Summary

Dominique Pagani links Robespierre to Rousseau, who was his idol, and to the will to make reason perceptible to the senses, of which the Festival of the Supreme Being is the illustration: a secular religion, his best intention, which failed12. He also makes him the figure of abstract virtue, the Incorruptible who refuses all enjoyment and guillotines in its name, the opposite of Sade34. He nevertheless corrects the image of the "bloodthirsty" Robespierre: Robespierre was outraged by Carrier's drownings in Nantes, whereas the bicentenary presented him as an executioner56. He notes that Robespierre sets freedom as a principle, holds social inequality to be necessary without accepting that it be sanctioned politically, and recognizes the State7. He compares him to Napoleon, "Robespierre on horseback", who succeeded by force where Robespierre remained isolated. He also takes up Nerval's account, which shows him as a very young man at Ermenonville.

1. 1#18 What is musical in music25 Mar 2021 · 31:09
2. 2Hegel and the yellow vests (part 1)13 Feb 2019 · 1:30:18
3. 3What is to be done? 1/329 Jan 2016 · 23:02
4. 4#2.5 Between crisis and war: philosophising?1 Aug 2017 · 7:51
5. 5#5.2 The philosopher's Odyssey: revolutionary thought21 Nov 2018 · 2:24
6. 6M. Clouscard's reply to C. Morilhat (part 2)10 Sept 2019 · 2:17:14
7. 7Tonight, we repoliticise (part 1)12 Mar 2018 · 23:30

Summary produced automatically from 31 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.