Pascal The Philosopher

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The Life of Blaise Pascal

Author: Blaise Pascal

language: en

Publisher: Minerva Press

Release Date: 2024-05-09

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The Life of Blaise Pascal (La vie de Monsieur Pascal), first published in 1684 and written by Madame Jacqueline Perier, the sister of Blaise Pascal and wife of Monsieur Perier (an advisor to the Court of Aides of Clermont), is a biographical account that provides an intimate portrait of Pascal's life, personality, and religious journey, including a first-hand account of the moment of his death. Deeply involved in Pascal's life, Madame Perier offers a detailed description of his early intellectual brilliance, scientific achievements, and later conversion to a deeply spiritual life influenced by Jansenism. The biography also highlights Pascal's struggles with illness, his ascetic practices, and his deep religious convictions, especially his embrace of the doctrine of grace. Written with affection and insight, the work reflects both Pascal's human frailties and his extraordinary intellect and faith, portraying him as a complex figure who balanced rigorous scientific inquiry with devout Christian mysticism. This biography is essential for understanding Pascal's personal and spiritual development, as well as the family context that shaped much of his thought and work. This new Reader's Edition contains a new Afterword by the translator on Pascal's personal relationship with Descartes and his intellectual objections to the new Cartesian rationality which fundamentally changed the course of both Science and Philosophy, a short biography on Pascal's life and impact. This is followed by a timeline of his life and relationships, an index of his core Philosophic terminology, a chronological list and summary of all of his published and posthumous works, and the text of Pascal's Memorial, a poetic, fragmented account of his divine vision in 1654. This volume introduces the reader to Pascal's metaphysical works and brings to life Pascal's witness of the dawn of a new Scientific age. This is volume 6 of the 7-part Complete Works of Pascal. This volume covers Pascals groundbreaking contributions to mathematics, science, and engineering, as well as his Scientific-Philosophical commentary on the Enlightenment's Scientific progress. Pascal was far from a systematic theologian or philosopher- he was a talented Scientist, Mathematician and respected thinker, but did not make a career of it. Yet his critique of Descartes (whom he knew personally) and scholastic philosophy has endured as a defense of Christian existentialism and a return to a more religiously grounded understanding of human nature and the limits of reason. His critiques specifically target Descartes' mechanistic and rationalist approach, especially as it relates to God, faith, and the nature of human existence. His criticisms do not stand up in terms of sheer intellectualism, but they are full of heart. Descartes argued that the existence of a benevolent God guarantees the reliability of human reason and the truth of clear and distinct ideas. This role of God, however, can be seen as largely mechanistic or deistic, since God was invoked primarily to validate human knowledge rather than to be worshiped or existentially related. Pascal famously quipped that Descartes' God was "a little too much of a philosopher's God".