THURSDAY NOVEMBER 12, 1:00-2:30 PM
“The Birth of Rationality and the Roots of Our Civilization” with Pierre Larroque.
Stressed out by the craziness of our world? Come rediscover rationality with those who invented it! At the origins, women and men counted basically for trading stuff. Events and “the order of things” was derived from godly or royal/tyrannical edicts. Starting in about 570 BC, the Greeks questioned “the principles and reasons for all things divine and human”. This led to the birth of rational argumentation – the concept of proof and demonstrable truth – in human enquiries. A few intellectual giants - Pythagoras, Plato, Euclid, Archimedes, Apollonius – developed logic and the use of reason as the bases for our civilization’s advances. Their construction of mathematics, and thus of logic and philosophy, still underpins our societies.
Pierre Larroque obtained a degree in mathematics and sciences from École Polytechnique in Paris. After a master’s in economics and finance from Stanford University, he joined the World Bank to help fund natural resources (mining, oil & refineries, petrochemicals) projects in Emerging Markets. From there, and for the remainder of his career, Pierre held increasingly senior positions in corporate finance with leading global investment banks for natural resources transactions. Pierre has always been interested in, and studied, the history of Ancient Greece and the development of mathematics and philosophy.
