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Author Moriarty, Michael, 1956- author.

Title Pascal : reasoning and belief / Michael Moriarty
Edition First edition
Published Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2020
©2020

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Description 1 online resource (viii, 413 pages)
Contents Preface -- Note on References and Translations -- List of Abbreviations -- PART I -- 1: Introduction -- 2: Contexts -- 3: The Uses of Philosophy: The Entretien avec M. de Sacy -- 4: Belief, Reason, Persuasion, Faith -- 5: Order and Disorder -- 6 : Futility and Wretchedness -- 7: Reasons for the Irrational -- 8: Human Greatness -- 9: Contradictions -- 10: The Fall -- 11: Self -- PART II -- 12: Diversion -- 13: Happiness -- 14: 'The Plan of his Whole Work' -- PART III -- 15: The Need to Seek for God -- 16: The Claims and Limits of Reason -- 17: Transition -- 18: True and False Religions: The Singularity of Christianity -- 19: The Order of Charity -- 20: The Wager -- 21: Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary "This book is a study of Blaise Pascal's defence of Christian belief in the Pensees. Michael Moriarty aims to expound-and in places to criticize-what he argues is a coherent and original apologetic strategy. Setting out the basic philosophical and theological presuppositions of Pascal's project, the present volume draws the distinction between convictions attained by reason and those inspired by God-given faith. It also presents Pascal's view of the contradictions within human nature, between the 'wretchedness' (our inability to live the life of reason, to attain secure and durable happiness) and the 'greatness' (the power of thought, manifested in the very awareness of our wretchedness). His mind-body dualism and his mechanistic conception of non-human animals are discussed. Pascal invokes the biblical story of the Fall and the doctrine of original sin as the only credible explanation of these contradictions. His analysis of human occupations as powered by the twin desire to escape from painful thoughts and to gratify one's vanity is subjected to critical examination, as is his conception of the self and self-love. Pascal argues that just as Christianity propounds the only explanation for the human condition, so it offers the only kind of happiness that would satisfy our deepest longings. He thus reasons that we have an interest in investigating its truth-claims as rooted in the Bible and in history. The closing chapters of this book discuss Pascal's view of Christian morality and the famous 'wager' argument for opting in favour of Christian belief."-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 395-405) and index
Notes Online resource; title from web page (Oxford Scholarship Online, viewed on July 30, 2020)
Subject Pascal, Blaise, 1623-1662 -- Religion
SUBJECT Pascal, Blaise, 1623-1662 fast
Subject Apologetics -- France -- History -- 17th century
Christian ethics -- France -- History -- 17th century
Faith and reason.
Apologetics
Christian ethics
Faith and reason
Religion
France
Genre/Form Electronic books
History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780192588982
0192588982
9780192588999
0192588990