Play Audiobook Sample
Pensées Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(3.00) - 4,099 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
Compiled after his death in 1662, Pascal's"pens├®es" (thoughts) are his ideas for a book in defense of faith in a rational world. These fragments give evidence of a profoundly original thinker who had resolved the conflict between his scientific mind and his heart-felt faith.
The book begins with an analysis of the difference between mathematical and intuitive thinking and goes on to consider the value of skepticism, contradictions, feeling, memory, and imagination. It is a powerful look at humanity's weakness and the futility of worldly life. Much of the value ofPens├®eslies in the clarity with which Pascal was able to present his intuitive thoughts.
Pascal spent much of his life composing this magnum opus, which offers some of the most powerful aphorisms about human experience and behavior ever written.
Download and start listening now!
"Blaise Pascal is a guy who knows and knows about knowledge and knowing -- what knowledge is and how it can be known, and what the right way of knowing is (namely, not only 'mathematically' [an acute consideration of propositions through rigorous logic] but also 'intuitively' [a perceptive 'looking at first glance' with the inclusion of the 'reasons of the heart' as a valid postulate in reasoning]). This is what I've seen of him so far. Haven't read yet through the whole book, but definitely enjoying it."
— Mitch (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
-
“I know of no religious writer more pertinent to our time.”
— T. S. Eliot
Pensées Listener Reviews
-
" "Man is a reed- albeit, a thinking reed..." "
— Becky, 2/11/2014 -
" pretty darn good translation - very solid introduction. "
— Jeremy, 1/29/2014 -
" Short form at it best. "
— Jonny, 1/16/2014 -
" This is a book that opened my mind to new ways of looking at religion and the soul. "
— Bonnie, 1/16/2014 -
" I read this in university. but have since then turned back to it several times for timely words of wisdom. Might take a little while to absorb this book. but its well worth it "
— Luke, 1/9/2014 -
" I need to re-read this one. I wasn't properly primed for it the first time. "
— Taylor, 12/28/2013 -
" One of the most influential books I have read in my life. Best to read it in it's original language though. "
— TheDuchess, 6/1/2012 -
" Scattered, insightful musings about God and existence. "
— Robbie, 10/21/2011 -
" Pascal's perspective is a little dark and sometimes depressing. The worst part was I found myself agreeing with a lot of his points. Fortunately, the excerpts assigned to me went surprisingly quickly. "
— Leah, 12/7/2010 -
" Besides short bits of wisdom, this book is also a warning to perfectionists. Pascal never finished taking notes for his grand work--something I would have liked to have read! "
— Sarah, 10/27/2010 -
" The insecurities and internal conflicts of a man of god and man of science. A really fascinating read, especially if you've read other Pascal. Covers the subject of the irreconcilable structures of logic and faith, from someone who understood that the former requires the latter. "
— Maxwell, 6/9/2009 -
" I threw this book in a garbage can underneath the el on Lake St. wager my ass! Opportunism of the worst kind; that which deals with the immortal soul. Nonsense! "
— James, 3/28/2009 -
" I need to give Pascal some more time; me seemed a little less grating than Kierkegaard. "
— Donald, 10/1/2008 -
" "Knowing all this does not help us to escape." Disquieting reflections on the vanity of existence. "
— Jonathan, 1/5/2007
About Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) was a French philosopher, mathematician, physicist, and theologian, as well as a writer whose brilliant command of the language marked him as a master of French prose. His early, anonymous masterpiece Les Lettres Provinciales became the model for Voltaire’s polemics. Pascal’s Pensées, his last great work, remained unfinished at the time of his death at age thirty-nine.