Pascal: The Man and His Two Loves

Cole, John R,

ISBN 10: 0814715109 / ISBN 13: 9780814715109

Published by New York University Press, United States, 1995

About this Item

8vo. Hardcover. Pp. 349. Mild shelfwear; markings and light tear on front endpaper. Light foxing but pages generally fresh and unmarked. John R. Cole reintegrates the various biographies on Pascal into a clear and complete portrait of the complex man. He focuses on Pascal's family, his father, and his first experimental disproof of Aristotelian physics. Cole also reinterprets the traditional view of Pascal's conversion, adapting associative methods from Freudian psychology to relate Pascal's newly ardent love of God to his prior love of his parents. John R. Cole is Thomas Hedley Reynolds Professor of History at Bates College.

Seller Inventory # 036336

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Pascal: The Man and His Two Loves
• Publisher: New York University Press, United States
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0814715109
• ISBN 13: 9780814715109
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Ever since the edifying life written by his sister in the months after his death, canonical representations of Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) have revered him for the scientific genius of his youth, the religious conversions of his mid-life, and the great books and greater saintliness of his last years. All this monumentalizes the hero, but it also reduces the man to a mind and spirit and it divides his life and work into unrelated halves. The preeminent specialist, Jean Mesnard, still picks up the subject where Gilberte Pascal left it in 1662. No historian in our language has even attempted to put the halves together again.
In Pascal: The Man and His Two Loves, John R. Cole reintegrates a life that began with familial attachments and achieved youthful marvels of invention and experiment with an Arithmetic Machine and Vacuum Experiments; Cole argues that love for his father spun the wheels and filled the void. Pascal then converted, having suffered particularly painful separations and losses; Cole's central chapters adapt Freudian methods to relate his newly ardent love of God to his prior love of parents. Finally, the convert wrote contrasting classics, the Provincial Letters and the Penses, before years of sanctified suffering terminated his work; Cole suggests that disciplined study of his affective life makes possible new readings of these great books.

About the Authors

John R. Cole is Reynolds Professor of History at Bates College.

Herrick Chapman is Associate Professor of History and of French Civilization at New York University.