The Cambridge Companion to Pascal

305 Pages·2003·1.93 MB·English

by  Nicholas Hammond

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the cambridge companion to
PASCAL
Each volume in this series of companions to major philoso-
phers contains specially commissioned essays by an in-
ternational team of scholars, together with a substantial
bibliography,andwillserveasareferenceworkforstudents
andnon-specialists.Oneaimoftheseriesistodispelthein-
timidationsuchreadersoftenfeelwhenfacedwiththework
ofadifficultandchallengingthinker.
Blaise Pascal (1623–62) occupies a position of pivotal
importance in many domains: philosophy, mathematics,
physics,religiouspolemicsandapologetics.Inthisvolumea
team of leading scholars presents the full range of Pascal’s
achievement and surveys the intellectual background of
his thought and the reception of his work. In addition to
chapters on Pascal’s life and intellectual legacy, topics in-
clude his work on probability, decision theory, physics,
philosophy of science, theory of knowledge, philosophical
method,polemics,biblicalinterpretation,graceandreligious
belief,thesocialworld,andtheartofpersuasion.
New readers and non-specialists will find this the most
convenient and accessible guide to Pascal currently avail-
able.Advancedstudentsandspecialistswillfindaconspec-
tusofrecentdevelopmentsintheinterpretationofPascal.
nicholas hammond is Senior Lecturer in the Depart-
ment of French, Cambridge University, and Director of
StudiesinModernLanguagesatGonvilleandCaiusCollege,
Cambridge.

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The Cambridge Companion to
PASCAL
Editedby
Nicholas Hammond
UniversityofCambridge
  
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contents
List of figures page ix
Acknowledgements x
List of contributors xi
Chronology xiv
List of abbreviations xvi
Introduction 1
nicholas hammond
1 Pascal’s life and times 4
ben rogers
2 Pascal’sreadingandtheinheritanceofMontaigne
and Descartes 20
henry phillips
3 Pascal’s work on probability 40
a.w.f. edwards
4 Pascal and decision theory 53
jon elster
5 Pascal’s physics 75
daniel c. fouke
6 Pascal’s philosophy of science 102
desmond m. clarke
7 Pascal’s theory of knowledge 122
jean khalfa
vii
viii Contents
8 Grace and religious belief in Pascal 144
michael moriarty
9 Pascal and holy writ 162
david wetsel
10 Pascal’s Lettres provinciales: from flippancy
to fundamentals 182
richard parish
11 Pascal and the social world 201
he´le`ne bouchilloux
12 Pascal and philosophical method 216
pierre force
13 Pascal’s Pense´es and the art of persuasion 235
nicholas hammond
14 The reception of Pascal’s Pense´es in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 253
antony mckenna
Bibliography 264
Index 273