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    Pensées
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    Pensées
    Ebook1,129 pages8 hours

    Pensées

    By Blaise Pascal

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    About this ebook

    "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 17th-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. Introduction by T. S. Eliot.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateJan 15, 2013
    ISBN9780486117355
    Author

    Blaise Pascal

    Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) was one of history’s most famous mathematicians. A prodigy who was said to have discovered the basic precepts of geometry while doodling in his playroom, Pascal published his first work at the age of sixteen. In 1646, he converted to the Catholic sect of Jansenism. He is best remembered for his Pensées (1669), a defense of Christianity.

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    Reviews for Pensées

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      An interesting take on a defense of Christianity by a renowned mathematician. Caution: This is not really a book, but a compilation of material that Pascal had intended to put into a book. He died before completing any part, so it appears disjointed, but his thoughts are lucid.
    • 3/5
      Alternating between brilliant melancholy and theology and other nonsense.
    • 5/5
      As far as I'm concerned, Pascal's "shorts" are far more clever, succinct, surprising, and woven together than those of Rouchefoucauld and others. There are many threaded thoughts woven amongst more than 900 maxims and mini-essays each of which stand on their own. The profundity and diversity of topics makes the Pensees something to read slowly and ponder -- it takes much more time than reading the same amount of text in typical prose. Here Pascal masterfully forces us to contemplate just about every philosophical aspect of nature, religion, culture, and government, and the human condition in general. Starting with a discussion of the mathematical versus the intuitive mind (there are advantages in both but true genius lies in the mathematically trained also being able to see the big picture and beyond the concrete), he then portrays theology in nature, argues against atheism, supports Catholic doctrine, and finds the source of all unhappiness.
    • 5/5
      A deep thinker and contemplative reading is a must for this book. Pascal delves into some deep spiritual truths. It is also easy to see the personality of Pascal in the writing
    • 4/5
      Unusual for a philosophical text, as it represents the private thoughts of the author organized via a method of his own design (he wrote them on strips of paper). Agonized thoughts on spirituality ("the endless silence of these infinite spaces fills me with dread") along with a justification of theology (commonly known as The Wager) which doesn't quite work. It's nice to read thoughts intimately and without the pretenses of a "published" text.