Pascal’s Pensées and Rousseau’s On the Social Contract

At this meeting we will continue with Pascal, and we'll be reading from "Listen to God" [S164/L131], at the bottom of page 36 in our edition, to "How hollow and full of garbage is the heart of man" [S171/L139], at the top of page 43. And then from Skepticism [S452/L518] "Extreme intelligence is accused..." on page 140, to the bottom of page 155. If we have time remaining, we'll look at other excerpts in the Miscellaneous Thoughts 2 [S491/L594], beginning on page 156.

This is the last meeting we will spend on Pascal. At the meeting after this, we'll return to On the Social Contract, which is the culmination of Rousseau's work in the realm of political philosophy. We'll be discussing Book 2 and 3, and we'll continue our discussion of the distinction between the "will of all" and "the general will".

Rousseau wrote on a wide variety of subjects, but the group will first delve into his political theory. And, while the group will concentrate on Rousseau, we may also take a look at other writers of the French Enlightenment; i.e. Montesquieu, Diderot, and, although he was a bit earlier, Montaigne.

This is the translation of the Rousseau we will be using in the meetings: https://annas-archive.org/md5/9c70d9441bf70f896c87a1ccd668c0bd

This is the edition of the Pascal we'll use in the meeting:
https://annas-archive.org/md5/6f44e8b57466bc72a7dac5b6b1ec1e96