Pensées

So out of all Peter Kreeft's books, which they're, they have all affected me in many, many ways, this was so, so good.

It is based off of Blaise Pascal's Pensées.

Pascal, right, this, uh, French mathematician, philosopher, theologian, apparently a gambler as well, he wrote down his thoughts or his Pensées, right? And, and they're kind of in random order.

They're...

Actually, there is not in order.

But we have to go over the first two chapters kind of very carefully because it's hard.

It's like, I don't know, like Pascal's Pensée or something.

It's just these short little snippets.

And there's kind of a little bit, there's a whiff of order about them, but for the most part, they're just like conversations.

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The Thoughts, Part One.

For several years before his death, Pascal had meditated the composition of some great work in defense of the Christian religion; but his health grew worse and worse, and during the last year or two of his life he probably did little more than now and then jot down a memorandum of some thought which might be used for his purpose.

It has been doubted by some whether it has not been an advantage to possess these last fruits of the genius of Pascal in a fragmentary state, instead of having them presented in a completely organized form.

It is not merely that an unfinished work has a certain charm of its own, raising questions which are unanswered, and speculations as to the manner in which the author would have answered them; and no one will deny that the fragments left by Pascal have an originality, a freshness, an incisiveness, which they might have lost, in part, if they had received further elaboration.

At least, such as they are, we possess them, and the concurrent testimony of the most thoughtful of the human race has assigned to them a unique position among the products of the greatest minds, and has produced them to be a monument more enduring than brass.

The most superficial study of these precious fragments will justify the title under which they were put forth, Pensées, Thoughts; and the motto affixed was no less happy than the title, Pendent opera interrupta.

There was a double aim in the mind of the writer, first, to defend Port-Royal against the attacks made upon it by the Jesuits and other adversaries; and secondly and chiefly, to offer an apologia, a defense of the Christian religion, which had long been a thought very near to the heart of Pascal, probably dating as far back as the period of his second conversion in sixteen fifty-four.

He was born in 1623.

And, you know, in some ways he was a very devout Christians, and he wrote a book called Pensee.

And when I was 11, I read his pensées, or at least many of them.

Tell

in which style has been sedulously practiced and in which they have furnished a model to generation after generation.

His Pensées, published after his death, is, quote, still a favorite exploring ground to persons who take an interest in their problems, end quote.

In philosophy, his position is this, quote, he seized firmly and fully the central idea of the difference between reason and religion.

but unlike most men since his day who, not contented with a mere concordat, have let religion go and contented themselves with reason, end quote.

Um, but I, I actually think most of the philosophical objections to the wager actually miss the point of it, uh, because people think it's an argument that is trying to strong arm you into belief, um, and it's not So if I, if I can kind of go through the wager and try to explain kind of how it works.

Um, I, I guess the, the background to it, and it comes in, in the Pensées.

As, as, um, as listeners may know, the Pensées is a collection of, um, sayings of Pascal.

He, towards the end of his life, after the night of fire, one of the projects he set himself was to write a great apology for the Christian faith.

Um, at least most scholars think he was, he was trying to do that.

Make good when men wish it were true, and then show that it is true." Tell us a little bit more about this from Pascal.

Yeah.

I think that comes in, in many versions of the Pensées.

For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Pascal and the Port Royalists by William Clark.

The Thoughts, Part 1.

For several years before his death, Pascal had meditated the composition of some great work in defense of the Christian religion, but his health grew worse and worse, and during the last year or two of his life, he probably did little more than now and then jot down a memorandum of some thought which might be used for his purpose.

It has been doubted by some whether it has not been an advantage to possess these last fruits of the genius of Pascal in a fragmentary state, instead of having them presented in a completely organized form.

It is not merely that an unfinished work has a certain charm of its own, raising questions which are unanswered, and speculations as to the manner in which the author would have answered them, and no one will deny that the fragments left by Pascal have an originality, a freshness, an incisiveness, which they might have lost in part if they had received further elaboration.

At least such as they are, we possess them, and the concurrent testimony of the most thoughtful of the human race has assigned to them a unique position among the products of the greatest minds, and has produced them to be a monument more enduring than brass.

The most superficial study of these precious fragments will justify the title under which they were put forth, Pensées, Thoughts, and the motto affixed was no less happy than the title, Pendant Opera Interrupta.

There was a double aim in the mind of the writer, first to defend Port Royal against the attacks made upon it by the Jesuits and other adversaries, and secondly and chiefly to offer an apologia, a defense of the Christian religion, which had long been a thought very near to the heart of Pascal, probably dating as far back as the period of his second conversion in 1654.

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For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Pascal and the Port Royalists by William Clark The Thoughts, Part 1 For several years before his death, Pascal had meditated the composition of some great work in defence of the Christian religion, but his health grew worse and worse, and during the last year or two of his life he probably did little more than now and then jot down a memorandum of some thought which might be used for his purpose.

It has been doubted by some whether it has not been an advantage to possess these last fruits of the genius of Pascal in a fragmentary state, instead of having them presented in a completely organised form.

It is not merely that an unfinished work has a certain charm of its own, raising questions which are unanswered, and speculations as to the manner in which the author would have answered them, and no one will deny that the fragments left by Pascal have an originality, a freshness, an incisiveness, which they might have lost in part if they had received further elaboration.

At least such as they are, we possess them, and the concurrent testimony of the most thoughtful of the human race has assigned to them a unique position among the products of the greatest minds, and has produced them to be a monument more enduring than brass.

The most superficial study of these precious fragments will justify the title under which they were put forth, Pensées, Thoughts, and the motto affixed was no less happy than the title, Pendendo opera interrupta.

There was a double aim in the mind of the writer, first to defend Port Royal against the attacks made upon it by the Jesuits and other adversaries, and secondly and chiefly to offer an apologia, a defence of the Christian religion, which had long been a thought very near to the heart of Pascal, probably dating as far back as the period of his second conversion in 1654.

Considering, however, the very prominent place assigned to the defence of miracles as evidences of Christianity, it has been inferred that the principal part of the work was written after the miracle of the Holy Thorn in 1656.