Pensees (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Pascal, Blaise

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140446451 ISBN 13: 9780140446456

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1995

Synopsis

A passionate defence of religious faith by the great seventeenth-century philosopher, mathematician and physicist

Blaise Pascal was the precociously brilliant contemporary of Descartes, but it is his unfinished apologia for the Christian religion upon which his reputation now rests. The Pensées is a collection of philosophical fragments, notes and essays in which he explores the contradictions of human nature in psychological, social, metaphysical and, above all, theological terms. Humankind emerges from Pascal's analysis as a wretched and desolate creature within an impersonal universe, but also as a being whose existence can be transformed through faith in God's grace.

Translated with an Introduction by A. J. Krailsheimer

About this title

About the Author

Blaise Pascal (1623-62) left his mark on mathematics, physics, religious controversy and literature. A convert to Jansenism, he engaged in passionate debate with the Jesuits the results of which are the Lettres Provincales, on which, with Pensées, his fame now rests. He is regarded by many as the greatest of French prose stylists.
A J Krailsheimer was Tutor in French at Christ Church, Oxford and translated widely from the French.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140446451
• ISBN 13: 9780140446456
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368