Summary
Dominique Pagani approaches epistemology through a question that reverses Kant's: how can sciences of history, or sciences of the subject, be real1? He contrasts the question "what is it?", addressed to a mute object, with the Socratic question "what do you call?", which presupposes a dialogue2. The natural sciences fall under the cause-effect pair and the model y = f(x). In his view, extending this model to the subject abolishes freedom, and with it the question "what ought I to do?". The sciences of history fall under the sign-meaning pair, in which the sign is immanent to the meaning3. He draws on Kant, on Marx and the 1859 preface, on Bachelard and on Einstein, and argues that science begins with statements, not with facts4. He also traces Aristotle's philosophical imperialism, then scientistic imperialism. He looks for the rigour of the subject's productions in Rimbaud and in Wagner's Ring. In 2026, he specifies that mechanistic materialism holds, but only within the natural sciences5.
- 1#9.11 How can sciences of history be real?7 Jan 2021
- 2#5.3 bis Questions (Facebook Live)13 Jan 2019
- 3#9.13 How can sciences of history be real?29 Jan 2021
- 4#9.20 From signal to sign: Einstein28 Apr 2021
- 5Nature vs. freedom?8 Oct 2026
Introduction produced automatically from the 9 sessions on this theme, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the sessions.
The 9 videos
Cycle 15Nature vs. freedom?
8 Oct 2026How does Kant distinguish the domain of nature from that of freedom, and in what sense do these two legislations contend for one and the same territory?
Cycle 9.2#9.20 From signal to sign: Einstein
28 Apr 2021How can one cross the abyss between the natural sciences and the historical sciences, and how is it that statements drawn from language alone apply to the world?
Questions and answersWagner and his interpreters, approaching Clouscard, Marx = Theseus?
31 Mar 2021How should one answer public questions on interpretations of Wagner's Ring, on how to enter Clouscard's work, on political philosophy, and on what Marx brings to the reading of Phèdre?
Cycle 9.2#9.16 How can sciences of history be real?
4 Mar 2021How can sciences of history be real, and how has the relation of the sciences to philosophy evolved since Aristotle's philosophical imperialism?
Cycle 9.2#9.14 How can sciences of history be real?
5 Feb 2021How can sciences of history be real, if the determinism of the natural sciences seems to exclude freedom?
Cycle 9.2#9.13 How can sciences of history be real?
29 Jan 2021How can sciences of history have a rigor with nothing to envy in the hard sciences, and what does Wagner's Das Rheingold show on this subject?
Cycle 9.2#9.12 How can sciences of history be real?
14 Jan 2021How can understanding, the faculty of the sciences and of the "if… then," axiologically neutral, be put to the service of evil, and how does Wagner's Das Rheingold show this?
Cycle 9.2#9.11 How can sciences of history be real?
7 Jan 2021How can sciences of history, that is, sciences of the human subject, attain a rigor really comparable to that of the sciences of nature?
Cycle 5.1#5.3 bis Questions (Facebook Live)
13 Jan 2019What distinguishes the philosophical question "what do you call...?" from the scientific question "what is it?", and how does the sign-meaning pair separate from the cause-effect pair?