Philosophies of the Mind and Matter: Pascal’s Essays on the Age of Cartesian Rationality

This newly translated collection presents Pascal’s philosophical reflections on persuasion, human greatness, and the complexity of emotions. This new Reader's Edition from Livraria Press contains a new Afterword by the translator on Pascal's personal relationship with Descartes and his intellectual objections to the new Cartesian rationality which fundamentally changed the course of both Science and Philosophy and a short biography on Pascal's life and impact. This is followed by a timeline of his life and relationships, an index of his core Philosophic terminology, a chronological list and summary of all of his published and posthumous works, and the text of Pascal's Memorial, a poetic, fragmented account of his divine vision in 1654. This extra material introduces the reader to Pascal's metaphysical works and brings to life Pascal's witness of the dawn of a new Scientific age. This is volume 4 of the 7-part Complete Works of Pascal by Livraria Press. This volume covers Pascal’s groundbreaking contributions to mathematics, science, and engineering, as well as his Scientific-Philosophical commentary on the Enlightenment's Scientific progress. This volume contains: 1660: The Art of Persuasion 1660: Three Discourses on the Condition of the Great 1662: A Speech in Which We Show That There Is No Necessary Relationship Between Possibility and Power 1643: Discourse on the Passions of Love Pascal's "Trois discours sur la condition des grands" is an examination of the moral conditions of the nobility and influential figures of his time. He uses these discourses to highlight the often unjust and arbitrary nature of social hierarchies, emphasizing the moral and ethical responsibilities that come with power.

Discourse on the Passions of Love ("Discours sur les passions de l’amour" ) is another response to the watershed philosophy of his friend, contemporary and fellow Catholic Scientist, Rene Descartes. The Art of Persuasion (later, Schopenhauer would write a book by the same name), and is a commentary on Descartes Cogito Ergo Sum and its Epistemological impacts. Pascal draws a line between knowledge that enters from the heart into the mind (truths of faith) and truths that enter from the mind into the heart. Only the latter are within the reach of our understanding. Now, our opinions enter the soul either demonstrated by the understanding or by the pleasure of the will. The art of persuasion therefore has as its object the way in which men consent to what is proposed to them, and to the conditions we want them to believe.