Pensees

A collection of philosohical fragments notes and essays in which the author explores the contradictions of human nature in pscyhological social metaphysical and - above all - theological terms.|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.|A passionate defence of religious faith by the great seventeenth-century philosopher mathematician and physicistBlaise 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