[PDF] Pascal eBook

Author : Paul J. Griffiths
Publisher : CUA Press
Page : 262 pages
File Size : 32,98 MB
Release : 2021-05-07
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0813233844

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Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) is known in the English-speaking world principally for the wager (an argument that it is rational to do what will affect belief in God and irrational not to), and, more generally, for the Pensées, a collection of philosophical and theological fragments of unusual emotional and intellectual intensity collected and published after his death. He thought and wrote, however, about much more than this: mathematics; physics; grace, freedom, and predestination; the nature of the church; the Christian life; what it is to write and read; the order of things; the nature and purpose of human life; and more. He was among the polymaths of the seventeenth century, and among the principal apologists of his time for the Catholic faith, against both its Protestant opponents and its secular critics. Why Read Pascal? engages all the major topics of Pascal's theological and philosophical writing. It provides discussion of Pascal's literary style, his linked understandings of knowledge and of the various orders of things, his anthropology (with special attention to his presentation of affliction, death, and boredom), his politics, and his understanding of the relation between Christianity and Judaism. Pascal emerges as a literary stylist of a high order, a witty and polemical writer (never have the Jesuits been more thoroughly eviscerated), and, perhaps above all else, as someone concerned to show to Christianity's cultured despisers that the fabric of their own lives implies the truth of Christianity if only they can be brought to look at what their lives are like. Why Read Pascal? is the first book in English in a generation to engage all the principal themes in Pascal's theology and philosophy. The book takes Pascal seriously as an interlocutor and as a contributor of continuing relevance to Catholic thought; but it also offers criticisms of some among the positions he takes, showing, in doing so, how lively his writing remains for us now.

Author : Blaise Pascal
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 716 pages
File Size : 17,76 MB
Release : 1995-12
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 0140446451

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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 Penseés 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. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Author : Mary Ann Caws
Publisher : Reaktion Books
Page : 197 pages
File Size : 26,45 MB
Release : 2017-05-15
Category : Art
ISBN : 1780237219

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This book considers Pascal's modes of writing - whether he is arguing with the strict puritanical modes of Church politics, in the guise of a naive 'provincial' trying to understand the Jesuitical approach (Les Provinciales), or meditating on the ways to present his own thoughts on religion (Apologia) to the world outside Port-Royal, the convent his sister Jacqueline had persuaded him to enter. Pascal's so-called 'worldly period', in which his relation to his libertine friends motivated his celebrated 'wager' about belief, is discussed alongside his Jansenist writings, his meditations on thinking about thinking, and finally his invention of the first means of public transport in Paris, shortly before his untimely death at 39 following a lifetime of illness.

Author : Joyce McPherson
Publisher : Greenleaf Press (TN)
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 32,46 MB
Release : 1995-01-01
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781882514175

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A biography of one of the most important scientists and mathematicians of the 1600's. Not only was he a brilliant scientist, but he was converted to Christianity as an adult and became a devoted apologist for the Christian faith. Of special interest to home schooling families, this book recounts the recognition by Pascal's father of his remarkable talents and the provisions he made for his son's education - one of the earliest and most successful examples of home schooling! For Christians, the account of Pascal's conversion is particularly moving as well as Pascal's immediate response to share the Gospel with his father, his sister and even with the nobleman who was his financial patron. This book is written on a 5th-6th grade reading level, but younger children will enjoy having it read out loud to them.

Author : Michael Moriarty
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 426 pages
File Size : 50,90 MB
Release : 2020-02-13
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0192588990

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This book is a study of Blaise Pascal's defence of Christian belief in the Pensées. Michael Moriarty aims to expound—and in places to criticize—what he argues is a coherent and original apologetic strategy. Setting out the basic philosophical and theological presuppositions of Pascal's project, the present volume draws the distinction between convictions attained by reason and those inspired by God-given faith. It also presents Pascal's view of the contradictions within human nature, between the 'wretchedness' (our inability to live the life of reason, to attain secure and durable happiness) and the 'greatness' (the power of thought, manifested in the very awareness of our wretchedness). His mind-body dualism and his mechanistic conception of non-human animals are discussed. Pascal invokes the biblical story of the Fall and the doctrine of original sin as the only credible explanation of these contradictions. His analysis of human occupations as powered by the twin desire to escape from painful thoughts and to gratify one's vanity is subjected to critical examination, as is his conception of the self and self-love. Pascal argues that just as Christianity propounds the only explanation for the human condition, so it offers the only kind of happiness that would satisfy our deepest longings. He thus reasons that we have an interest in investigating its truth-claims as rooted in the Bible and in history. The closing chapters of this book discuss Pascal's view of Christian morality and the famous 'wager' argument for opting in favour of Christian belief.

Author : Michael Rota
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
Page : 254 pages
File Size : 34,64 MB
Release : 2016-04-21
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0830899995

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Blaise Pascal's wager argues that since there is much to gain and relatively little to lose, the wise decision is to seek a relationship with God and live a Christian life. Michael Rota explores the dynamics of doubt, evidence and decision-making in order to consider what is necessary for people to embrace the Christian faith—and the difference it makes in people's lives.

Author : John J. Conley S.J.
Publisher : University of Notre Dame Pess
Page : 315 pages
File Size : 23,35 MB
Release : 2019-04-30
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0268105162

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There have been many studies analyzing the philosophy of Blaise Pascal, but this book is the first full-length study of the philosophies of his sisters, Jacqueline Pascal and Gilberte Pascal Périer, and his niece, Marguerite Périer. While these women have long been presented as the disciples, secretaries, correspondents, and nurses of their brother and uncle, each woman developed a distinctive philosophy that is more than auxiliary to the thought of Blaise Pascal. The unique philosophical voice of each Pascal woman is studied in The Other Pascals. As the headmistress of the Port-Royal convent school, Jacqueline Pascal made important contributions to the philosophy of education. Gilberte Pascal Périer wrote the first philosophical biographies of Blaise and Jacqueline. Marguerite Périer defended freedom of conscience against coercion by political and religious superiors. Each of these women authors speaks in a gendered voice, emphasizing the right of women to develop a philosophical and theological culture and to resist commands to blind obedience by paternal, political, or ecclesiastical authorities. The Other Pascals will be of keen interest to readers interested in early modern philosophy, history, literature, and religion. The book will also appeal to those with an interest in women’s studies and French studies.