This book is a study of Blaise Pascal's defence of Christian belief in the Pensees. 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.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
But according to Graeme Hunter, Pascal’s critics have simply failed to grasp his lean, but powerful conception of philosophy. This accessibly written book provides the first introduction to Pascal’s philosophy as an organic whole.
This series of brief, dramatic notes on his religious convictions are here translated into English. These thoughts expose Pascal's vision of the world and display powerful reasoning and a profound faith.
This Is A New Release Of The Original 1910 Edition.
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 ...
It is true that the miracle happened at Port-Royal, and that it arrived opportunely to revive the depressed spirits of the community in its political afflictions; and it is likely that Pascal was the more inclined to believe a miracle which ...
The author finds in the writings of Pascal a style that anticipates twentieth-century theology, a sophistication that belies charges of Pascal's theological naïveté, and a concern to uphold rather than to undermine doctrinal traditions of ...
Translator names not noted above: Mary L. Booth and Orlando W. Wight.Originally published between 1909 and 1917 under the name "Harvard Classics," this stupendous 51-volume set-a collection of the greatest writings from literature, ...
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
His remarkable guide offers an eye-opening account of the work of a marvellous and much neglected thinker.