Pensees and Other Writings Study Guide & Plot Synopsis

Pensees and Other Writings Plot Summary

Preview of Pensees and Other Writings Summary:

The Pensees (or 'Thoughts') is a collection of writings by Blaise Pascal, one of the great philosophers and mathematicians of the seventeenth century. Pascal was an ardent believer in the Christian religion. The Pensees was intended as a defense of Christianity, but Pascal died before the book could be fully edited and published. Thus, the Pensees is a series of fragments. Pascal was notoriously ascetic, often taking extreme positions on how Christianity required Christians to wholly repudiate the world. Pascal was not a professionally trained theologian or a systematic philosopher; despite his genius, the book, even if arranged correctly, was not intended as a grand treatise.

Pascal emphasizes a number of themes in the Pensees. He is focused on the natural depravity of human beings. He argues, among other things, that humans are inordinately concerned with themselves, that the self if left unchecked will destroy the individual and that no...
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