FREE SHIPPING on Orders of $40 or More!
Pascal's Pensees
Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true, declared Pascal in his Penseés. The cure for this, he explained, is first to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show that it is. Motivated by the seventeenth-century view of the supremacy of human reason, Pascal (1623-1662) intended to write an ambitious apologia for Christianity, in which he argued the inability of reason to address metaphysical problems. While Pascal's untimely death prevented his completion of the work, these fragments published posthumously in 1670 as Penseés remain a vital part of religious and philosophical literature. Unabridged republication of the W. F. Trotter translation as published by E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., New York, 1958. Introduction by T. S. Eliot.
1100184153
Pascal's Pensees
Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true, declared Pascal in his Penseés. The cure for this, he explained, is first to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show that it is. Motivated by the seventeenth-century view of the supremacy of human reason, Pascal (1623-1662) intended to write an ambitious apologia for Christianity, in which he argued the inability of reason to address metaphysical problems. While Pascal's untimely death prevented his completion of the work, these fragments published posthumously in 1670 as Penseés remain a vital part of religious and philosophical literature. Unabridged republication of the W. F. Trotter translation as published by E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., New York, 1958. Introduction by T. S. Eliot.
15.95 Out Of Stock
Pascal's Pensees

Pascal's Pensees

by Blaise Pascal
Pascal's Pensees
Add to Wishlist
Pascal's Pensees

Pascal's Pensees

by Blaise Pascal

Overview

Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true, declared Pascal in his Penseés. The cure for this, he explained, is first to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show that it is. Motivated by the seventeenth-century view of the supremacy of human reason, Pascal (1623-1662) intended to write an ambitious apologia for Christianity, in which he argued the inability of reason to address metaphysical problems. While Pascal's untimely death prevented his completion of the work, these fragments published posthumously in 1670 as Penseés remain a vital part of religious and philosophical literature. Unabridged republication of the W. F. Trotter translation as published by E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., New York, 1958. Introduction by T. S. Eliot.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780979127670
Publisher: Suzeteo Enterprises
Publication date: 02/17/2010
Pages: 208
Product dimensions: 0.48(w) x 6.00(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Christian philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalizing the work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote in defense of the scientific method. In 1642, while still a teenager, he started some pioneering work on calculating machines, and after three years of effort and 50 prototypes he invented the mechanical calculator. He built 20 of these machines in the following ten years. Pascal was an important mathematician, helping create two major new areas of research: he wrote a significant treatise on the subject of projective geometry at the age of 16, and later corresponded with Pierre de Fermat on probability theory, strongly influencing the development of modern economics and social science. Following Galileo and Torricelli, in 1646 he refuted Aristotle's followers who insisted that nature abhors a vacuum. Pascal's results caused many disputes before being accepted. In 1646, he and his sister Jacqueline identified with the religious movement within Catholicism known by its detractors as Jansenism. Following a mystical experience in late 1654, he had his "second conversion", abandoned his scientific work, and devoted himself to philosophy and theology. His two most famous works date from this period: the Lettres provinciales and the Pensées, the former set in the conflict between Jansenists and Jesuits. In this year, he also wrote an important treatise on the arithmetical triangle. Between 1658 and 1659 he wrote on the cycloid and its use in calculating the volume of solids. Pascal had poor health especially after his 18th year and his death came just two months after his 39th birthday.
From the B&N Reads Blog
Page 1 of

Customer Reviews