Research Catalog

Blaise Pascal : mathematician, physicist, and thinker about God

Title
Blaise Pascal : mathematician, physicist, and thinker about God / Donald Adamson.
Author
Adamson, Donald.
Publication
New York : St. Martin's, 1995.

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Details

Description
xii, 297 pages : illustrations; 22 cm
Summary
Pascal has long been regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile of the world's thinkers. This chronological and carefully annotated survey explores the full range of his intellectual achievements. It also includes a chapter on his life. Renowned as mathematician, physicist, scourge of Jesuit moral theology, and staunch, though perceptive, champion of Christianity, Pascal devoted himself in full measure to science and religion. His work on conic sections, the probability calculus, number theory, cycloid curves and hydrostatics is considered in detail. So, too, is his notorious prize competition on the cycloid and its aftermath. The author's analysis of the Provincial Letters and the unfinished Thoughts emphasises their many distinctive features, both thematic and technical. He discusses Pascal's lesser known works, all of them pertaining to theology or the philosophy of religion. Blaise Pascal contains a chapter on the famous wager argument and a wide-ranging bibliography.
Subject
  • Pascal, Blaise, 1623-1662
  • Pascal, Blaise, 1623-1662
  • Science > History
  • Philosophy > History
  • Scientists > France > Biography
  • Philosophers > France > Biography
  • Science > history
  • Philosophy > history
  • Philosophers
  • Philosophy
  • Science
  • Scientists
  • France
Genre/Form
  • Biography
  • Biographies
  • History
  • Biographies.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-275) and index.
Contents
1. Introduction -- 2. Foundations -- 3. Jansenism -- 4. A 'God-inebriated man' -- 5. Provincial letters -- 6. Christian life -- 7. Human nature -- 8. Wager -- 9. Scriptures -- 10. Pascal, 'devout geometrician' -- 11. Conclusion
ISBN
  • 031212502X
  • 9780312125028
  • 0333550366
  • 9780333550366
LCCN
94031137
OCLC
  • ocm31131634
  • 31131634
  • SCSB-9645866
Owning Institutions
Princeton University Library