Pascal's Wager: The Man Who Played Dice with God

Connor, James A.

ISBN 10: 0060766913 / ISBN 13: 9780060766917

Edité par HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco, 2006

A propos de cet article

8vo, 224 pp., Remainder mark lower edge.

N° de réf. du vendeur 089632

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Pascal's Wager: The Man Who Played Dice with God
• Éditeur: HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco
• Date de parution: 2006
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0060766913
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780060766917
• Reliure: hardcover
• Édition: 1st.
• État de l'article: Fine copy in fine dust jacket
• État de la jaquette: Jaquette
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Philosophy

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

In a major biography of Blaise Pascal, James Connor explores both the intellectual giant whose theory of probability paved the way for modernity and the devout religious mystic who dared apply probability to faith. A child prodigy, Pascal made essential additions to Descartes's work at age sixteen. By age nineteen, he had invented the world's first mechanical calculator. But despite his immense contributions to modern science and mathematical thinking, it is Pascal's wager with God that set him apart from his peers as a man fully engaged with both religious and scientific pursuits.

One night in 1654, Pascal had a visit from God, a mystical experience that changed his life. Struggling to explain God's existence to others, Pascal dared to apply his mathematical work to religious faith, playing dice with divinity: he argued for the existence of God, basing his position not on rigorous logical principles as did Aquinas or Anselm of Canterbury, but on outcomes—his famous wager. By applying to the existence of God the same rules that governed the existence and position of the universe itself, Pascal sounded the death knell for medieval "certainties" and paved the way for modern thinking.

À propos de l?auteur

James A. Connor is the author of Kepler's Witch: An Astronomer's Discovery of Cosmic Order Amid Religious War, Political Intrigue, and the Heresy Trial of His Mother and Silent Fire: Bringing the Spirituality of Silence to Everyday Life. A former Jesuit priest, Connor is professor of English at Kean University in Union, New Jersey; he has also held teaching posts at St. Louis University and Gonzaga University. He is a director of studies at the Lessing Institute in Prague. He holds degrees in geoscience, philosophy, theology, and creative writing, and a Ph.D. in literature and science. He is a prize-winning essayist published widely in such places as American Book Review, Traditional Home, Willow Springs, The Critic, The Iowa Review, and The Iowa Journal of Literary Studies.