The Cambridge Companion to Pascal

by Nicholas Hammond (Editor)

Overview

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) occupies a position of pivotal importance in many domains: philosophy, mathematics, physics, religious polemics and apologetics. A team of leading scholars surveys the range of his achievement and intellectual background as well as the reception of his work. New readers and nonspecialists will find a convenient and accessible guide to Pascal and advanced students and specialists, a conspectus of recent developments in the interpretation of his works.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521809245
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/17/2003
Series:	Cambridge Companions to Philosophy
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Nicholas Hammond is Reader in the Department of French at the University of Cambridge. His books include Playing with Truth: Language and the Human Condition in Pascal's Pensées (1994), Creative Tensions: An Introduction to Seventeenth-Century French Literature (1997), Fragmentary Voices: Memory and Education at Port-Royal (2004) and Gossip, Sexuality and Scandal in France, 1610–1715 (2011). He is also co-editor of The Cambridge History of French Literature (Cambridge, 2011).

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Pascal's life and times Ben Rogers; 2. Pascal's reading and the inheritance of Montaigne and Descartes Henry Phillips; 3. Pascal's work on probability A. W. F. Edwards; 4. Pascal and decision theory Jon Elster; 5. Pascal's Physics Daniel Fouke; 6. Pascal's Philosophy of Science Desmond M. Clarke; 7. Pascal's theory of knowledge Jean Khalfa; 8. Grace and religious belief in Pascal Michael Moriarty; 9. Pascal and Holy Writ David Wetsel; 10. Pascal's Lettres provinciales: from flippancy to fundamentals Richard Parish; 11. Pascal and the social world Hélène Bouchilloux; 12. Pascal and philosophical method Pierre Force; 13. Pascal's Pensées and the art of persuasion Nicholas Hammond; 14. The reception of Pascal's Pensées in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Antony McKenna.

Editorial Reviews

"...an indispensable handbook of English-language Pascal scholarship." Philosophy in Review

"All in all, this is a top notch collection, which deserves, and receives, an unqualified recommendation." - Jeff Jordan, The University of Delaware

From the Publisher