Summary
Dominique Pagani approaches the State through a distinction taken from Michel Clouscard, which he maintains from 2012 to 2025: the State is not the state apparatus. The word refers both to what increases freedom and to what oppresses. The state forest, which belongs to everyone, stands against the "private property" sign, which deprives1. He reserves the word "State" for Rousseau's general will, an organic whole, and calls the police, the army and the closed circles of power the "state apparatus". From this he draws a paradox of the present: the most powerful state apparatus in history serves the absence of the State, which is the private2. He dismisses both the libertarians and the MEDEF employers' federation, who together denounce "too much State", while the Yellow Vests protest against its retreat3. He links this critique to the libertarian liberalism that came out of May 68 and to Hegel's civil society4. He also rereads Antigone with Hegel: the tragedy does not set the individual against the State but the family against the city. The State oversteps its missions when it attacks funeral rites5.
- 1State and state apparatus: the conflict between public and private29 Aug 2025
- 2M. Clouscard's reply to C. Morilhat (part 2)10 Sept 2019
- 3#15 Return to the logics of the subject23 Jul 2020
- 4Michel Clouscard and the betrayal of May 687 Feb 2025
- 5A for Antigone15 Dec 2014
Introduction produced automatically from the 9 sessions on this theme, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the sessions.
The 8 videos
Cycle 14State and state apparatus: the conflict between public and private
29 Aug 2025Why must the State, understood as general will, be distinguished from the State apparatus that oppresses?
Le PrécepteurMichel Clouscard and the betrayal of May 68
7 Feb 2025What is libertarian liberalism according to Michel Clouscard, and why does May 68 mark its birth?
Cycle 11A springtime of the peoples?
18 Mar 2023Does poetic speech proceed from the immediate intuition of genius or from a rigor that proceeds by mediations?
Cycle 8#15 Return to the logics of the subject
23 Jul 2020What does the confinement of the era reveal, and what form of solidarity, camaraderie or community, allows us to face it?
Saint-Dizier Popular UniversityThe religion of money
29 Sept 2019Why is money, the most vile thing there is, so close to the sacred, and how can we get out of this religion of money?
On Michel ClouscardM. Clouscard's reply to C. Morilhat (part 2)
10 Sept 2019How does Michel Clouscard's reply to Claude Morilhat illuminate the form of his writing, the relation of image to concept, and the question of the State?
A Philosophical AlphabetA for Antigone
15 Dec 2014Is Antigone the figure of the individual who opposes the state?
On Michel ClouscardEverything is allowed but nothing is possible: Michel Clouscard (2)
29 Jan 2012Why does Clouscard criticize "libertarian liberalism," and what becomes of this critique when applied to the state, the societal, and music?