Man, this living being endowed with reason, manufacturer of manufactured tools, endowed with an articulated language, in whom conceptual and symbolic thought has emerged, is characterized by the quest for beauty, an aptitude for wonder, and a capacity for hope accompanied by a refusal of the absurd. With the invention of the manufactured tool and the first testimonies of a symbolic thought, how did the fabulous cultural and spiritual adventure of Man begin? Why has the emergence of a sense of transcendence continued to manifest itself throughout time, even in the most ancient times, and in all cultures, and to be inscribed at the heart of our humanity? How did it become a characteristic of Man, one of his deepest aspirations? How to define the meaning of the sacred? Driven by an intrinsic impulse, since its origins and in all cultures, Man has always sought the transcendent. It is this quest, and the traces it has left behind, that is the subject of this book. After L’Univers, la Vie et l’Homme : émergence du sens de la Conscience and Le Beau, l’Art et l’Homme : émergence du sens de l’Esthétique, this is the third and last opus directed by Henry de Lumley, resulting from a series of conferences at the Collège des Bernardins. The ambition of these meetings? Bringing together physicists, astrophysicists, geologists, biologists, paleoanthropologists, prehistorians, art historians, philosophers and theologians to discuss questions related to the essence of humanity.
HOME Father de l’Epine, Collège des Bernardins
Hervé de Vaublanc, Collège des Bernardins
Blandine Genthon General Manager at CNRS Editions
Christelle Voisin, Public Relations Manager at CNRS Editions
Henry de Lumley, Director of the Institute of Human Paleontology, Albert I Prince of Monaco Foundation.
SPEAKERS The authors of the book
A book signing of the three volumes of the conference cycle on the meaning of Man will take place after the exchanges.
