>>24754015
bump

>>24754015
im vaguely interested in revered thinker pascal, but i want to see what LIT(!) thinks first

>>24754015
I don't like penis

>>24754864
Tell me about the book or leave, but don’t waste my time.

>>24754886
you’re wasting your own time.
ever think twice about what you’re doing?

It is a deeply rewarding and beautiful work, especially from a Christian and catholic perspective but also from a lore general philosophical and literary one too. He wonderfully captures the joys and fears of a thinking soul, and some passages actually seem startlingly modern and pessimistic. It's essential reading. That said, it is a book of aphorisms, not essays, so don't expect any one idea to be presented in any sustained way, which makes it more of a book you read a few passages from everyday over a couple months rather than something you sit down and pound out.

>>24754919
Thank you.

>>24754919
finally a reputable opinion on this guy. thanks mister! think i’ll pick up that little book after all

>>24754015
As a pessimist he was my first introduction to pessimistic literature, the very first book that I downloaded on my phone back in 2018. Pascal surely suffered a lot. He was a "marked" man. I still carry his teachings with me in day to day life.

Brilliant mind that unfortunately was infected with the Christcuck mind virus which led him to renounce math as pure foolishness since theology was considered the only worthy science

>>24754986
Was it more due to Christianity than to his intelligence and pessimism? Where do you think a mind like his might have been led if he had pursued mathematics further? Sometimes I think Christianity is a good place for pessimistic people to reside in; not for giving the right answers, but in providing a shared feeling.

>>24754015
Like Nietzsche said, he was wasted on a specific kind of Christianity. And I think a dash of healthy Epicureanism and high IQ scepticism, like his nemesis Montaigne, could have saved him, and even brought him closer to God unironically.

>>24755595
''healthy'' Epicureanism, ''high IQ'' scepticism. Explain. Also, wasn't Pascal's own scepticism not high IQ? Why not? How being an outright skeptic like Montaigne is anything closer to ''high IQ'' quality?

Great book even if you just pick it up and read a few random pages. Some of it is darkly funny.

>>24754919
nice

>>24754015
if you know any Pascal outside of his mathematics contributions. You know he railed against the organization known as the "Jansenists". anyways, true story. In the margin of the Pensees? He left a note in his own handwriting on his original.
"Is all this trifling really worth it."
The trifling being, all the political and spiritual arguing.

This guy's name is Pascal Thinks? What kind of fucking youtube channel shit is this

>>24756623
>smartest american /lit/ poster

Is it worth reading if you are not religious and not particularly concerned about the existence or nonexistence of a God?

>>24756766
It’s not purely theological, there is a lot of philosophical reflection on e.g. ethics or the limits of knowledge, also some literary and political commentary.

>>24756036
IMO Pascal had a rather neurotic conception of deity. Montaigne was not an outright sceptic, but maintained a certain temperance in his thought.

>>24754015
I have thought before that /lit/ doesn't know him that well, apparently.
I'm currently reading Pascal, slowly as one anon itt chiefly suggested, and i'm still going back to some aphorisms. What I found is if you truly think about what he writes, he will stick with you in your thoughts when just dealing with life. Very worth meditating about. He's also worth reading just for his style and genius use of figurative language

>>24756645
loool

>>24757223
I think his theological conception is rather irrelevant compared to his existential and by implication epistemological positions. And how was Montaigne not an outright skeptic?

>>24754919
I agree, though there is a system latent under each aphorism in the Pensées. I know you don't imply otherwise but just to clarify, some think aphoristic style means confusion of thoughts.
He has some passages adressing this
>I should do too much honor to my subject, if I treated it with order, since I want to show that it is incapable of it.

>>24754886
kek, this.
look at all these pseuds trying to pretend they're too upmarket for such a vulgar mental association.

>>24757260
which translation?

>>24757310
ha ha penis

I’d read a little bit of Pensees and the once you’re well into it go ahead and read A Song for Nagasaki. It’s the story of Takashi Nagai. He was a Japanese physician who converted to Catholicism in Nagasaki. His family was killed in the nuclear blast and the book documents his conversion story and then his complete dedication to the victims. One of the major things that converted him to Catholicism was reading Pensees.

>>24757421
I can't recommend any in English; it appears to be divided between W. F. Trotter's and C. Kegan Paul's, i'm reading him in Spanish, some old obscure translation which I won't even bother to mention but is precise.