3) Problem

Before we dive into the depths and chasms of the history of our species, let's begin, as usual, with our daily lives, here and now. Those of you who have seen my 2021 and 2022 videos are already familiar with what I call the contractualization paradox. Remember, either a contract is signed between people who trust each other - in which case it's ultimately pointless, or it is signed between people who don't trust each other - in which case, it's a priori equally pointless. After all, why enter a contract if you don't trust each other?

Behind this paradox lies what lawyers call the opposition between « formalism » and « consensualism », an opposition that boils down to one question: is a contract valid when formal conditions are met, such as the signing of a document? Or is a contract valid as soon as an « agreement » is reached between the parties, even if this agreement has not yet been formally established?

I already addressed this question in 2022 in my video « Bonne forme, Angoisse et Rituels » (Proper form, Anxiety and Rituals), in which I focused on the proper form of the contract. But until now, I had put aside the mysterious « agreement » between the parties that constitutes the foundation of the contract in modern law in most countries. This applies for instance to France, where, since the 2016 reform, the Civil Code lays down, clearly and unambiguously, and right from the opening words of article 1101 that « the contract is an agreement of wills ».

However, from a purely legal standpoint, the concept of an « agreement of wills » is rather difficult to describe or enforce. Therefore, in an attempt to clarify and understand it, jurists have invented a plethora of equally ethereal legal concepts.

In recent years, contracts have thus seen a flourishing of « best efforts » and « intuitu personae » clauses. But the most significant development, in my opinion, is that contracts now often refer to the « good faith » of the parties, as if it could be otherwise.

The 2016 reform of the French Civil Code even enshrined this « good faith » in article 1104. This addition to the law is a reminder of the extent to which French society is one of mistrust and « bad faith ». I spoke to you about this in my video entitled « On ne se méfie jamais assez » (Never too wary).

Behind the evanescent concepts of agreement of wills, good faith and best efforts lies what we call the « spirit of the contract ». Yes, I know, it's hardly less abstract, but at least this concept recontextualize all this into a historical perspective thousands of years old: the holy spirit of the Christians, of the Jews RuwaḤ HaQoDeSh, and of the Muslims Al RuwḤ Al QuDuSu.

And what lies behind this spirit, this RuwaḤ, this RuwḤ? Quite simply breath and wind, which have always fascinated mankind, who felt that breath and wind were not only vital, but above all at the heart of human cooperation. This relationship between air and cooperation is extremely ancient, going back to the time when the first animals emerged from water tens of millions of years ago, when air suddenly enabled the transmission of sound and light signals. Millions of years before the scientists of the European Enlightenment understood the physics of sound propagation through air.

Therefore, for those interested in language and human cooperation, one needs to take a very close look at breath and sound. In this field, one person stands out as having best perceived the specificities of sound communication over visual or written communication: Walter J. Ong, the Jesuit priest and linguistics and oRaLity leading specialist, whom I mentioned in my previous videos.

In his major work « Orality and Literacy, The Technologizing of the Verb » Walter J. Ong explains that the first characteristic of sound is obviously its evanescence: unlike images and written words, sound only exists when it disappears. As soon as you hear it, it's gone. Sound is just hot air.

Another specificity of sound signals is that they cannot be produced without power, without energy, unlike written media. You can see, feel, taste, or even touch a lifeless wild animal, but if you hear the sound of that same animal, watch out because something « energetic » and « powerful » might just leap onto you…

This fundamental dynamic quality of sound accounts for the fact that in oral traditions, speech is much more an action than a way to express ideas as we – who are utterly immersed in writing – think of it today, as I explained in my second to last video.

Another specificity of the spoken word is that it is « innate », unlike the written word that needs to be learnt formally. Unless they suffer from serious disorders, babies all over the world learn to speak naturally through their interaction with adults, without the need for formal grammar or syntax rules, which remain completely unconscious.

In short, sound and image are very different media, even sometimes antagonistic. Remember when as a child you were asked to learn a recitation by heart: you probably closed your eyes to concentrate and avoid visual distractions - just like some singers sometimes do during a performance or like the poets from antiquity, often portrayed eyes closed or blind.

Homo Sapiens therefore acknowledged very early this central aspect of breath and sound while developing symbols. The most archaic of all is probably the first CRy of the NeWBoRN coming out in the open aiR: one of the most intense events a person can witness. All your insides shudder. The sound is a bit like this: Tuuuuu! What? You don’t know the ShowFaR, the HoRN blown on the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashana, and on Yom Kippur, the day of Atonement? Don’t worry, I will have it at my side for a few videos, and you will soon learn all its secrets.

In the meantime, breath and sound, being so primordial, lie at the foundation of many creation and cosmogony myths, as Claude Mettra beautifully wrote in his book « Saturne ou l'herbe des âmes ». Listen:

« Quite often, the appearance of the night is associated with the appearance of the wind from which the earth was born, the same wind that, in other myths, fertilized an already-formed earth so that it could give birth to the sky. However diverse the cosmological accounts, the wind acts as the generator of sound, and night as the generator of color. This birth of sound underlies all creation stories. “In the beginning was the Word", says the Bible, and the primordial abyss can be seen as a sounding board ready to appear as soon as the divine breath gives the universe its impetus. The Upanishads tell us that the first world to be created was purely acoustic. This pre-eminence of sound in the creative act has been magnificently traced by Marius Schneider, not only in the mythical tales of India, but also in the legends of archaic cultures. For the Maori, "the power of procreation, the first ecstasy of living, and the joy in the face of growth brought silence from contemplation to sound. This sound created heaven and earth, which grew like trees", and evoking the deities of ancient India, Marius Schneider writes: "The root, power and form of all beings are made up of their voices or by the name they bear, because all beings first came into existence through having been called by their names. The nature of the first beings is purely acoustic. »

Acoustics, power, breath, origin: you're about to discover that these concepts are much more archaic than suspected and lie in fact at the heart of the language we use every day, without being aware of it.

SLIDE : Spirit (of the contrat, of the law), where are you ? Words fly away Sound is like hot air Powerful and primordial breath