Book description
Blaise Pascal, the precociously brilliant contemporary of Descartes,
was a gifted mathematician and physicist, but it is his unfinished
apologia for the Christian religion upon which his reputation now rests.
The Pense s is a collection of philosohical fragments, notes and essays
in which Pascal explores the contradictions of human nature in
pscyhological, social, metaphysical and - above all - theological terms.
Mankind emerges from Pascal's analysis as a wretched and desolate
creature within an impersonal universe, but who can be transformed
through faith in God's grace.
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 Pens es, 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.
