Spinoza

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani reads above all the Ethics, from which he often takes up a few formulas. The first, "we judge things good because we desire them," is for him a pre-Freudian thought in which desire comes first1. He also quotes "the idea Peter has of Paul expresses more the state of Peter's body"2. He retains Spinoza's theory of error and illusion: to be mistaken is not to think what does not exist, but to think a displaced reality3. He recalls freedom as the understanding of necessity, a formula taken up by Hegel, and "every determination is negation," to which Hegel pays tribute4. He relies on the last part of the Ethics, devoted to human freedom, against the neo-Spinozists, Lordon foremost among them, who use him to deny freedom or to set him against Marx and Hegel5. He faults him for a positivity without negativity and for a body that remains mechanistic: one must read him, then enrich him with Marx or Freud6. He also mentions the lenses Spinoza ground to remain independent, as Rousseau copied music.

1. 1#6 Réponses aux questions30 Nov 2020 · 7:30
2. 2#4.2 Angélique (de Nerval)12 Nov 2017 · 24:54
3. 3#2 Lénine ou les ailes du rêve18 Apr 2021 · 52:59
4. 4"Je est un autre" ou l'identité contradictoire12 Dec 2023 · 1:24:41
5. 5#2 Lénine ou les ailes du rêve18 Apr 2021 · 41:28
6. 6La laïcité, vérité de la religion ?18 Feb 2024 · 1:44:16

Summary produced automatically from 150 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.