Blaise Pascal

The Pensées is a collection of fragments on theology and philosophy written by 17th-century philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal. Pascal's religious conversion led him into a life of asceticism and the Pensées was in many ways his life's work. The Pensées represented Pascal's defense of the Christian religion. …

For much of his life, Pascal (1623-62) worked on a magnum opus which was never published in the form the philosopher intended. Instead, Pascal left a mass of fragments, some of them meant as notes for the Apologie. These became known as the Pensées, and they occupy a crucial place in Western philosophy and religious …

Included in this volume are fourteen of the fragments intended for Pascal's Jansenist-inspired defense of the Christian religion. Using the Chevalier edition, these are grouped to present a logical development of three themes, "The State of Man in Ignorance of God," "The Wager," and "The Christian Life." This …