Germany
11 videos, newest first.
What Dominique Pagani says
Dominique Pagani approaches Germany through a phrase of Gilbert Badia's: "France has problems, Germany is a problem." He understands it as an ambivalence in the Freudian sense, one that produces both the best and the worst1. On the side of the best, he places German music, from Bach to Wagner. On the side of the worst, he sees a Nazi barbarism that arises at the heart of civilisation. In the brawl of the second act of Die Meistersinger, he reads a metonymy of German history2. He stresses that the Jews who best expressed German identity, such as Bruno Walter, the Klemperers or Schoenberg, were driven out of Germany1. He also points out that Buchenwald lies next to Weimar, and that Germany, like Italy, was unified late3. Between 2021 and 2023, he rereads several times Nietzsche's paragraph 244 on "German depth", whose good-naturedness would be a dangerous disguise. He considers this text prophetic in light of current events in Germany4. On the political level, he criticises Germany for recognising Slovenia, which opened the Yugoslav wars. He sees in it a revanche made possible by the Brussels institutions, and a rearmament that is starting again5.
- 1Musicosophie 10. Les deux Klemperer et Bruno Walter dans Wagner18 Jan 2021
- 2Musicosophie 1. Schubert et les maîtres chanteurs3 Dec 2020
- 3Leur "Europe", c'est la guerre.28 Feb 2026
- 4Nietzsche ou le Grand Nigaud - Lectures sur le vif7 Feb 2023
- 5l'U.E c'est la guerre ! - extrait (5min)18 Sept 2014
Introduction produced automatically from the 11 sessions on this theme, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the sessions.
The 11 videos
Season 14Their "Europe" means war.
28 Feb 2026What is meant by fascism today, and why is war its worst expression?
Readings on the spotNietzsche, or the Great Ninny - Readings on the Spot
7 Feb 2023What do two paragraphs of Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil reveal about the music to come and the German soul?
Season 10#15 Nietzsche: Philosophical or musical relevance? Answers to questions
23 Jun 2022What place does music occupy between the mathematician, the poet and the philosopher, and what good use can be made of Nietzsche, the philosopher who spoke most of music?
MusicosophieMusicosophy 10. The two Klemperers and Bruno Walter in Wagner
18 Jan 2021Why was the best German music, that of Wagner in particular, best conducted and expressed by Jews whom Germany drove out?
Saint-Dizier Popular UniversityThe World Before, The World After - Part 1
16 Jan 2021What separates a "world before" from a "world after", and is the health crisis a revolution or the acceleration of trends already at work?
MusicosophieMusicosophy 8. Happiness and unhappiness in music
11 Jan 2021Why does the history of music make happy and morbid musics alternate, and what is the happiness that they express?
MusicosophieMusicosophy 1. Schubert and the master singers
3 Dec 2020Why begin a history of music with its middle, with Schubert and the second act of Wagner's Die Meistersinger?
At the Tropiques bookshopArendt and Heidegger: the destruction of thought
24 Sept 2020What relation unites Arendt's conception of Nazism and totalitarianism with Heidegger's conception of thought, and how has this relation served to exonerate Heidegger and Schmitt?
Season 2#2.8 Between crisis and war: Philosophising?
1 Aug 2017How can philosophy, after having answered with the sciences the question "what can I know?", move on to the knowledge of man and his historical present?
A Philosophical AlphabetU for Übermensch
4 Jan 2015What does Nietzsche's notion of the superman cover, and what does it become when related to the notion of the subhuman?
Interviews for L’AffranchiThe EU means war! - excerpt (5min)
18 Sept 2014Did the European Union bring peace to Europe?