Property

propriété

Worked through in 11 videos · 18 passages.

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani defines property in opposition to possession. Possession is merely the effect of force, like the lion taking the cheetah's prey; property is a right, which is not empirical and rests on a positive title recognised by another subject1. It is therefore ternary: myself, the thing, and the other who recognises me2. It cannot be seen in the thing, and use is not enough to ground it when it is contested, as with a well in a time of drought3 4. He regards Rousseau as the most radical figure of the Enlightenment because he calls into question property, which is its foundation, and not possession5 6. He specifies that Rousseau fights deprivative property, not property7. He also connects the concept to Marx: what is at stake in the theory of value is the ownership of the means of production. Finally, he contrasts the private, "I deprive you of it", with the public and the State, starting from the sign "private property, no mushroom picking"8.

Summary produced automatically from 18 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

Season 13 · 29 Aug 2025STATE AND STATE APPARATUS - The conflict between public and private

4:03"Private property, mushrooms forbidden": private means I deprive you; it is the very opposite of the State, of the public.

Talks · 20 Mar 2023PHILOSOPHY with PAGANI: A for ANTIGONE

2:06The private is what one deprives others of, like the sign 'private property, mushroom-picking forbidden.'

Series · 6 Jun 2021#3 Nomad or sedentary? - The case of Nerval

39:40"I shall never be a property owner" takes on a grave resonance when related to Nerval's death.
46:25Montmartre's undermined ground allows only a hundred years of possession, so fleeting that communist doctrines could hardly contest it.

Season 9.2 · 3 Apr 20219 #18 Twilight of the Gods, or from repetition to liberation

1:23:01Property, founded on a positive title, is ternary: me, the thing and the other who recognizes me; the fact changes when it is based on right.

Season 5.2 · 30 Jun 2019#5.8 Nature or Landscape?

27:32This is the final determination without which freedom remains an abstract universal; Rousseau fights private property, not property.
1:30:55One passes from possession, which belongs to force, to property, which belongs to right.

Season 3 · 1 Aug 2017#3.6 From Ulysses to Daedalus

41:17Possession is the effect of force, as with the lion that takes the cheetah's prey. Property is a right, which is not empirical and which must be recognized.
1:15:35Rousseau calls property into question, not possession: this is why he was the man to be brought down.

Series · 1 Feb 2016Marx on the Beach 2/2

38:39The political stake of the theory of value is the ownership of the means of production; Rousseau is the first to place it at the center.
48:49A class is abolished by changing property relations, not by attacking persons.

Series · 29 Jan 2016What is to be done? 3/3

18:28Possession is only the effect of force; property rests on a positive title recognized by another subject.
45:01In Rousseau, labor is the title that founds property: one must look at the relation to the other, not to the thing.

Talks · 23 Jun 2015L'île du Peuple: the debate

22:59Property is not seen in the thing; it presupposes recognition of the other and the history of its production.
1:23:21Use is not enough to found property when it is contested, as with a well in a drought.

Series · 15 Dec 2014A for Antigone

3:10Private means "I deprive you of it": private property is the opposite of the state.

Series · 20 Sept 2014#2 Rousseau, a world that begins

10:04Rousseau is the most radical of the Enlightenment thinkers because he calls property into question, the very foundation of the Enlightenment.
17:05In Nerval's anecdote, Rousseau disputes with the master his property and his supreme enjoyment.