Blaise Pascal's Quest for the Ineffable (e-book) (used book) | bookbook.eu

Description

The problem of the ineffable haunts Blaise Pascal. Whether in his fragmentary Pens�es, his personal correspondence, or his scientific writings on the void and geometry, the Baroque thinker gravitates to the same elusive questions: How can reason understand that which surpasses reason? How to speak of that which is beyond words? His seemingly paradoxical inquiry into God's transcendent nature - and its mathematical corollary, infinity - does not dead-end at a logical impasse. This book shows how Pascal overcomes the limits of reason by adopting dissonant cognitive strategies akin to the mystical tradition known as apophatic (�negative�) theology. Current scholarship has largely overlooked the presence of apophatic thought in Pascal's work. What emerges from this book is a philosophical dialogue between Pascal and Pseudo-Dionysius, the fifth-century writer of seminal apophatic treatises.