Pascal: The Man and His Two Loves

by John R. Cole (Editor), Herrick Chapman (Editor)

Ever since the edifying life written by his sister in the months after his death, canonical representations of Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) have revered him for the scientific genius of his youth, the religious conversions of his mid-life, and the great books and greater saintliness of his last years. All this monumentalizes the hero, but it also reduces the man to a mind and spirit and it divides his life and work into unrelated halves. The preeminent specialist, Jean Mesnard, still picks up the subject where Gilberte Pascal left it in 1662. No historian in our language has even attempted to put the halves together again.
In The Man and His Two Loves, John R. Cole reintegrates a life that began with familial attachments and achieved youthful marvels of invention and experiment with an Arithmetic Machine and Vacuum Experiments; Cole argues that love for his father spun the wheels and filled the void. Pascal then converted, having suffered particularly painful separations and losses; Cole's central chapters adapt Freudian methods to relate his newly ardent love of God to his prior love of parents. Finally, the convert wrote contrasting classics, the Provincial Letters and the Penses, before years of sanctified suffering terminated his work; Cole suggests that disciplined study of his affective life makes possible new readings of these great books.

362 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1995

Reviews

[Bren]

intriguing reexamination of pascal utilizing freudian psychology to situate him in his social/familial context instead of a wholly "detached" persona...definitely a project im amenable to but the author veers too far sometimes into endorsing a straightforward depressive = genius equation. still some good textual insights, worthwhile read for anyone interested in pascal after youve familiarized yourself with pensees