483. Between Infinity and the Void: Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal was a pioneering scientist and deeply spiritual religious thinker; what united these two sides of his thought?
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Themes:
• H. Levi (trans.), Pensées and Other Writings (Oxford: 1995).
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• J.H. Broome, Pascal (London: 1965).
• J. Brun, La philosophie de Pascal (Paris: 1992).
• V. Carraud, Pascal et la philosophie (Paris: 1992).
• J.R. Cole, Pascal: The Man and his Two Loves (New York: 1995).
• H.M. Davidson, Blaise Pascal (Paris: 1983).
• N. Hammond (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Pascal (Cambridge: 2003).
• G. Hunter, Pascal the Philosopher: an Introduction (Toronto: 2013).
• J. Mesnard, Les Pensées de Pascal (Paris: 1976).
• M. Moriarty, Fallen Nature, Fallen Selves: Early Modern French Thought II (Oxford: 2006).
• D. Wetsel, Pascal and Disbelief (Washington DC: 1994).
Comments
Gassendi's influence episode scrapped?
Peter has the episode that was planned on Gassendi's influence across Europe been scrapped or moved?
https://historyofphilosophy.net/what-to-expect-french-dutch
Can you also tell me the list of interview episodes you have on 17th Century Philosophy?
In reply to Gassendi's influence episode scrapped? by DukeOfEthereal
Further episodes
Yes, I decided against the Gassendi influence episode after reading up a bit on it and seeing that there was not as much to say about it as I thought; I figured the general introduction to him plus the episode on atomism more generally would be enough.
I don't usually announce interviews in advance because plans on those are always a bit in flux, and also I don't want to say I am interviewing people until I have invited them (and occasionally it doesn't work out, though people almost always say yes!). But I can tell you that in the near future we'll have Liz Jackson on Pascal's Wager and Steve Nadler on occasionalism. Actually here's an update as to what is coming up between now and April which is pretty much set in stone, I don't think these plans will change. In fact all but the last one are written and/or recorded.
484 Pascal’s Wager [Jan 11]
485 Interview: Pascal’s wager (Liz Jackson) [Jan 25]
486 Antoine Arnauld and Jansenism [Feb 8]
487 The Port Royal Logic [Feb 22]
488 Nicolas Malebranche [Mar 8]
489 Malebranche and Occasionalism [Mar 22]
490 Interview: Occasionalism (Steve Nadler) [April 5]
491 Arnauld vs Malebranche on Ideas
In reply to Further episodes by Peter Adamson
French Moralists and Scholasticism
Will the episodes on French Scholasticism and The French Moralists be planned after you've finished Arnauld vs Malebranche ?
Also I'm curious to know about the planned episode on Malebranche’s Theory of Mind ?
In reply to French Moralists and Scholasticism by DukeofEthereal
Upcoming episodes
Funny you ask, I just wrote the script on that topic today; it's about the debate between Malebranche and Arnauld on the nature and source of "ideas."
And yes after that I have scholasticism to work on and moralists a bit after that.
In reply to Further episodes by Peter Adamson
Descartes, Spinoza and the Geometric method
Thanks for the update, and for the podcast in general. It’s outstanding work; I recommend it constantly and share it wherever I can :)
A question looking a bit further ahead: can we expect Spinoza to appear in the series in 2026? And do you plan to discuss the geometrical method (https://iep.utm.edu/geo-meth/) explicitly, given how central it is to early modern philosophy (especially Spinoza, but also Descartes and Leibniz)?
Very much looking forward to the upcoming episodes!
In reply to Descartes, Spinoza and the Geometric method by MissingName.
Spinoza
We‘ll definitely get to 17th century Dutch philosophy in 2026 but I think Spinoza will be in early 2027 because there will be some scene-setting first. I want to do the political and legal stuff along with the historical context which means tackling Grotius and to contextualize Spinoza I‘ll look at other free thinkers first. But it will be around the turn of the year.
For sure I will talk about the argumentative structure of the Ethics though I wasn‘t planning a whole episode on geometrical method; it‘s a good point though, I should remember to highlight that as a theme along the way.
Animal crackers are free!
https://blog.archive.org/2026/01/01/welcome-to-the-public-domain-in-2026/
Sorry, for completely off-topic question: do you celebrate?
In reply to Animal crackers are free! by Matěj Cepl
Animal Crackers
A great movie! I didn't know about that holiday but maybe I should celebrate since the podcast is in the public domain.
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