Blaise Pascal's Quadricentennial

Scripps College, Claremont is hosting a philosophy conference in honor of Pascal’s 400th birthday. All are invited, but we ask that people RSVP. The conference is on March 24-26.

Below are the details, including speakers. Updated details available at conference website https://sites.google.com/view/pascalconference23.

Please RSVP to me (Yuval Avnur [email protected]). This is a hybrid event/zoom attendance is available.       

--Yuval Avnur Professor and Chair, Philosophy Scripps College, Claremont  

Blaise Pascal

(born 1623, Clermont-Ferrand)

From Clermont to Claremont

In Honor of Pascal’s Quadricentennial, &

In Preparation for The Blackwell Companion to Pascal (Roger Ariew & Yuval Avnur, eds.)

Location:

Scripps College, Claremont

Vita Nova Lecture Hall 100

With generous support from                

*The Scripps College Dean of Faculty, Harper Funds, Humanities Institute, EU Center, and Philosophy department

*The Pomona College departments of Religious Studies and Philosophy

*The Claremont McKenna College Philosophy department.

Conference website: https://sites.google.com/view/pascalconference23

 

Program:

Friday, March 24

 

I. Religion, Ethics, and Political Philosophy

9:00-10:00

Pascal’s Wager in the Light of the Apologetics of His Time

Roger Ariew (University of South Florida)

10:15-11:15

Pascal on Divine Hiddenness

John Schellenberg (Mount Saint Vincent University (by Zoom)

11:30-12:30

The Ethics of Debate in Pascal’s Provinciales

Syliane Malinowski-Charles & Marc André Bernier (Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières)

LUNCH 12:30-1:30

1:30-2:30

Pascal's Political Philosophy

Ryan Hanley (Boston College)

II. Epistemology & Metaphysics

2:45-3:45

What You See is What You See: Knowledge, Belief and Truth in Pascal's Philosophy

Yoen Qian-Laurent (Sorbonne Université)

BREAK

4:15-5:15

Pascal and the Port-Royal Logic

Elodie Cassan (École Normale Supérieure, Lyon)

***

 

Saturday, March 25

III. Mathematics and Natural Philosophy

9:00-10:00

Pascal and Philosophy of Science

Sophie Roux (École Normale Supérieure, Paris)

10:15-11:15

Dettonville and Euclid’s Givens

Sébastien Maronne (Université de Toulouse) (by ZOOM)

11:30-12:30

Pascal’s Physics

Aaron Spink (Dartmouth College)

LUNCH 12:30-1:30

IV. Philosophical Legacy

1:30-2:30

Kant

Lawrence Pasternack (Oklahoma State University) (by ZOOM)

2:45-3:45

Kierkegaard

Lydia Amir (Tufts University)

BREAK

4:15-5:15

Pascal in the Light of the Phenomenology of Max Scheler and Martin Heidegger

Sylvain Josset (Sorbonne Université)

Conference Banquet at the Hampton Dining Room

6:00-9:00pm

***

Sunday, March 26

(IV. Philosophical Legacy cont’d)

9:00-10:00

Marxists

Michael Moriarty (University of Cambridge) (by ZOOM)

10:15-11:15

Malebranche

Madeleine Ropars (Université de Caen) (by ZOOM)

V. Pascal’s Context

11:30-12:30

Pascal and Descartes

Dan Arbib (École Normale Supérieure, Paris)

LUNCH 12:30-1:30

1:30-2:30

Jacqueline Pascal, Gilberte (Pascal) Périer, and Marguerite Périer

Daniel Colette (Marquette University)

2:45-4:00

      General Discussion