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DamienC
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Consider the universal enveloping algebra $U(\mathfrak g)$ of your Lie algebra $\mathfrak g$. Since it is a Hopf algebra, then you can construct a filtered simplicial cocommutative coalgebra $A_\bullet$:

  • $A_i=U(\mathfrak g)^{\otimes i}$

  • face maps are given by applying the product

  • degeneracy maps are given by applying the unit

The $E_1$ term of the associated spectral sequence is precisely the Chevalley-Eilenberg chain complex*.

In other words, the Chevalley-Eilenberg complex of $\mathfrak g$ is a by-product of the Bar complex of $U(\mathfrak g)$. And the Bar complex of an augmented unital algebra $A$ arises as the chain complex associated to the simplicial set $Nerve(A)$ (where I view $A$ as a linear category with one object).

  • this is another way of saying what Mariano Suárez-Alvarez says in his answer.
DamienC
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