Voltaire

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani almost always reads Voltaire alongside Rousseau. He sees him as the termite gnawing at the edifice of the old world through his critique of the Church and of fanaticism1. But he faults him for reducing religion to an error, without grasping the force of illusion or the "truth of error"2. He also points out that the prophet of tolerance calls for Rousseau's head, since Rousseau opposed the Geneva theatre and attacked Le Mondain3. He often comments on the letter on commerce in the Lettres philosophiques, where the useful merchant is set against the powdered lord, and on the praise of luxury in Le Mondain. In them he reads a bourgeois, liberal outlook that misses the political, while noting that together with Rousseau he makes happiness the reference value of the Enlightenment4. He praises the historian of Le Siècle de Louis XIV and the prose writer of the letters and tales (Zadig, Candide), and singles out "one must cultivate one's garden" as perhaps the best thing in him5.

1. 1#5.2 L’Odyssée du philosophe : La pensée révolutionnaire21 Nov 2018 · 1:19:47
2. 2Popper (Karl)3 Dec 2019 · 1:45:37
3. 3Au bistrot avec Pagani : partie 118 Jun 2016 · 45:21
4. 4La mondanité chez Clouscard ou "L'idéologie dominante"26 Apr 2023 · 15:10
5. 5#4.9 Angélique (de Nerval)14 Jun 2018 · 30:37

Summary produced automatically from 140 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.