Thoughts

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.

After making important early contributors to the fields of physical sciences and of mathematics--including the invention of the discipline of probability--French polymath BLAISE PASCAL (1623-1662), a former child prodigy, turned his extraordinary talents to theology and philosophy. This, his most profound work, was unfinished at the time of his premature death, but it is still considered one of the finest works in the French language. Here, Pascal mounts a sophisticated defense of his Catholic faith, discussing, among other subjects:

* the misery of man without God
* justice and morality
* the fundamentals of Christianity
* proofs of Jesus Christ
* his now-famous wager, proving the necessity of belief in God.