Premier État Philosophy

An invisible college and refuge for aristocrats of spirit in these thin times. This is a place to discuss art, religion, and philosophy, what Hegel called the domain of Absolute Spirit. 

The name for the channel, Premier État, is drawn from European history. It was one of the three estates of the Ancien Régime in medieval France. The First Estate, Le Premier État, was the clergy (those who prayed), The Second Estate the nobility (those who fought), and the Third Estate the common folk (those who labored). While I am not a member of the clergy and am quite critical of the Roman Catholic Church, I nonetheless appreciate how spirituality was thought to play an essential role in culture in the medieval era. In fact, I see the idea of a Premier État as an expression of what Coleridge would later identify as a Clerisy—a class devoted to the preservation and renewal of the spiritual culture of a people.