Pensees

Intended to prove that religion is not contrary to reason, "Pensé es" ranks among the liveliest and most eloquent defenses of Christianity. Pascal had intended to write an ambitious apologia for Christianity but his untimely death prevented the work's completion. The fragments remain a vital part of religious and philosophical literature. Introduction by T. S. Eliot.

Blaise Pascal was born in Clermont in 1623, the son of a government official. During his short life he left his mark on mathematics, physics, religious controversy and literature. A convert to Jansenism, he engaged with gusto in a controversy with the Jesuits, which gave rise to his Lettres Provinciales on which, with the Pensées, his literary fame chiefly rests. A remarkable stylist, he is regarded by many as the greatest of French prose artists. He died, after a long illness, in 1662.
Dr. A.J. Krailsheimer was born in 1921 and was Tutor in French at Christ Church, Oxford, from 1957 until his retirement in 1988. His publications are Studies in Self-Interest (1963), Rabelais and the Franciscans (1965), Three Conteurs of the Sixteenth Century (1966), Rabelais (1967), A. J. de Rancé, Abbot of La Trappe (1974), Pascal (1980), Conversion (1980), Letters of A. J. de Rancé (1984), Rancé and the Trappist Legacy (1985) and Correspondance de Rancé (1993). He has also translated Flaubert’s Bouvard and Pécuchet and Salammbo and Pascal’s The Provincial Letters for the Penguin Classics.
Dr. A.J. Krailsheimer was born in 1921 and was Tutor in French at Christ Church, Oxford, from 1957 until his retirement in 1988. His publications are Studies in Self-Interest (1963), Rabelais and the Franciscans (1965), Three Conteurs of the Sixteenth Century (1966), Rabelais (1967), A. J. de Rancé, Abbot of La Trappe (1974), Pascal (1980), Conversion (1980), Letters of A. J. de Rancé (1984), Rancé and the Trappist Legacy (1985) and Correspondance de Rancé (1993). He has also translated Flaubert’s Bouvard and Pécuchet and Salammbo and Pascal’s The Provincial Letters for the Penguin Classics.

Translated with a Revised Introduction by A. J. Krailsheimer

Introduction
Concordance between the present edition and that of P. Sellier
Select Bibliography
Section One: Papers Classified by Pascal (Pascal's Titles)
I. Order
II. Vanity
III. Wretchedness
IV. Boredom
V. Causes and effects
VI. Greatness
VII. Contradictions
VIII. Diversion
IX. Philosophers
X. The Sovereign Good
XI. APR
XII. Beginning
XIII. Submission and use of reason
XIV. Excellence of this means of proving God
XV. Transition from knowledge of man to knowledge of God
XVb. Nature is corrupt
XVI. Falseness of other religions
XVII. Make religion attractive
XVIII. Foundations
XIX. Figurative law
XX. Rabbinism
Section Two: Papers Not Classified by Pascal (Translator's Titles)
I. Various
II. The Wager
III. Against indifference
IV. Eternal judgment. Christ.
V. Two essential truths of Christianity
VI. Advantages of Jewish people
VII. Sincerity of Jewish people
VIII. True Jews and true Christians have same religion
IX. Particularity of Jewish people
X. Perpetuity of Jewish people
XI. Proofs of religion
XII. Prophecies
XIII. Particular prophecies
XIV. Daniel
XV. Isaiah and Jeremiah: Latin texts
XVI. Prophecies
XVII. Prophecies
XVIII. Prophecies: the Jews and Christ
XIX. Figurative meanings
XX. Belief. Classical quotations
XXI. Two types of mind
XXII. Mathematical and intuitive mind
XXIII. Various
XXIV. Various
XXV. Human nature. Style. Jesuits etc.
XXVI. Sources of error
XXVII. Diversion. Draft Prefaces
XXVIII. Superiority of Christianity. Human behaviour
XXIX. Relativity of human values. The Bible and its truth
XXX. Habit and conversion
XXXI. Figurative language in Bible. Human relations
Section Three: Miracles
XXXII. Opinion of Saint-Cyran
XXXIII. Rules for miracles
XXIV. Miracles for Port Royal against Jesuits
Section Four: Fragments Not Found in the First Copy
A. The Memorial
B. Fragments in the Recueil Original
The Mystery of Jesus
C. Fragments from other sources
Self-love
Saying Attributed to Pascal
Additional Pensées

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