Pascal’s Conception of ‘Universal Men’

Pascal’s Conception of ‘Universal Men’

Audio recording of a lecture given by tutor Richard McCombs on September 23, 2022 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: "Pascal’s almost unrelenting emphasis on the weakness, vanity, misery and sinfulness of humanity can be hard to take. This lecture focuses on what is arguably the most beautiful and widely appealing aspect of his Pensees, namely, his thoughts on universal human beings. The most obvious thing about these people is their intellectual breadth and versatility. There is something better about them than this, however. Pascal says that “no one guesses what they are.” This lecture attempts to divine their hard to guess secret, which lies not in intellectual excellence, but in moral or spiritual excellence that is or should be inspiring both to those of us who share Pascal’s religious views and to those of us who are appalled by the negativity of his Christianity."

Santa Fe, NM

2022-09-23

Meem Library has been given permission to make this item available online.

sound

mp3

English

SF_McCombsR_Pascal's_Conception_of_Universal_Men_2022-09-23

m4a

00:51:00