A Summer with Pascal

Un été avec #8

by Antoine Compagnon, Catherine Porter (Translator)

From an eminent scholar, a spirited introduction to one of the great polymaths in the history of Europe.

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) is best known in the English-speaking world for his contributions to mathematics and physics, with both a triangle and a law in fluid mechanics named after him. Meanwhile, the classic film My Night at Maud’s popularized Pascal’s wager, an invitation to faith that has inspired generations of theologians. Despite the immensity of his reputation, few read him outside French schools. In A Summer with Pascal , celebrated literary critic Antoine Compagnon opens minds to a figure somehow both towering and ignored.

Compagnon provides a bird’s-eye view of Pascal’s life and significance in historical context, making this volume an ideal introduction. Still, scholars and neophytes alike will profit greatly from masterful readings of the Pensées ―a cornerstone of Western philosophy―and the Provincial Letters , in which Pascal advanced wry theological critiques of his contemporaries. The concise, taut chapters build upon one another, easing into writings often thought to be forbidding and dour. With Compagnon as our guide, these works are not just accessible but enchanting.

A Summer with Pascal brings the seventeenth-century thinker to life in the present. In an age of profound existential doubt and assaults on truth and reason, in which religion and science are so often crudely opposed, Pascal’s sophisticated commitment to both challenges us to meet the world with true intellectual vigor.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

184 pages, Hardcover

Published May 7, 2024

About the author

Professeur de littérature française à la Sorbonne, à l'université Columbia de New York et au Collège de France

Né le 20 juillet 1950 à Bruxelles, dans une famille de six enfants. Son père, le général Jean Compagnon fait la guerre de 1940 puis les guerres d’Indochine et d’Algérie. Orphelin de mère à quatorze ans, il passe son enfance à Londres, Tunis, Washington et fait sa classe de rhétorique dans un lycée militaire de la Sarthe.

Ancien élève de l'Ecole polytechnique, ingénieur des ponts et chaussées et docteur ès lettres, Antoine Compagnon est maître de conférences à l'Ecole polytechnique (1978-1985), professeur à l'Institut français du Royaume-Uni à Londres (1980-1981), à l'université Columbia à New York depuis 1985, à l'université du Mans (1989-1990) et à l'université Paris 4 (1994-2006). Il est également membre du Conseil national de l'enseignement supérieur et de la recherche (Cneser) de 2002 à 2007 et de la Commission Pochard sur la revalorisation du métier d'enseignant (2007).

Professeur de littérature française au Collège de France depuis 2006, il est membre, entre autres, du comité de rédaction des revues telles que Critique, The Romanic Review, Bulletin de la Société des amis de Montaigne, The French Review, Genesis, Cambridge Studies in French, L'Année Baudelaire, Revue d'histoire littéraire de la France, Les Cahiers du judaïsme.
Spécialiste de Montaigne et de Proust, il écrit de nombreux ouvrages sur la littérature.

En 2012, il reçoit le titre de Professeur Honoris causa d'HEC : « La littérature, ça paye ».

Antoine Compagnon est chevalier de la Légion d'honneur et commandeur des Palmes académiques.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_...

Reviews

[Richard Cho · Rating 5 out of 5]

More than anyone else in human history, Pascal is an impossible figure. "...with both a triangle and a law in fluid mechanics named after him," a physicist, mathematician, theologian, and the inventor who successfully implemented a public transportation in his native city, and much more. And he died at the age of 39.

His magnum opus, Pensees (thoughts), is in some ways an impossible book. Just like Fernando Pessoa's book "The Book of Disquiet," Pensees is composed of mere fragments, without a proper order dictated by the author. Hence, there are many versions of the book with different ordering of the fragments. Although the book is purported to be written to convince his liberal friends of the worthiness and the necessity of living as a Christian, Pensees speaks of themes equally applicable to secular culture(most on human condition). Since it is a sort of an impossible book for a lay reader like me, a book like "A Summer with Pascal" is a welcome companion to the reader of Pascal, specifically his book Pensees. I thoroughly enjoyed the books, and many "aha" moments accompanied me as I gleefully thumbed through the pages.

What stuck with me most are the chapters on his ways of thinking, his method so to speak. A dialectical reversal, or the coincidence of opposites, it could be named. Two opposing views, and he often elevates both or debunks both. He does not take a side; rather, he arrives on his own new conclusion. The middle ground, which seems a bit different from Aristotle's "golden mean," is where a human greatness resides, although Pascal seems to infer that such a middle ground is impossible to attain by human will alone. Pascal knows that "imagination" effects us with greater power than "reason," yet his writing is sober and "reasonable" within the limits of reason. According to this book, Pascal had a superb control of the language as well (one chapter is devoted to his advise on writing.)

This book inspired me to revisit Pascal's Pensees.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. I've always been intrigued with Pascal and frequently quote some selections from the Pensees. But I never really knew much about him or the totality of his work. Antoine Compagnon is a French scholar who has written several "A Summer of ___" books about philosophers which consist of short essays on various aspects of their work. This book is an ideal introduction to Pascal and I found confirmation for why his writings had appealed to me. He is a contrarian and to my mind a true intellectual who is constantly finding new ways to approach many important questions. And, he has a sense of humor. "But divine truths, Pascal added, enter the soul through the grace of God, 'From the heart into the mind, and not from the mind into the heart.'" "The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know." "Between pride and despair, neither one nor the other or both at once: such, according to Pascal, is the position of the man of faith: reasonably unhappy." This is not your typical summer read, but it is much more rewarding. I recommend reading it in snippets while sitting on a porch in midsummer sipping a glass of ice tea.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most enjoyable. The well-written, cogent, short chapters, and cover art.

Notes:
Preface: Pascal was Montaigne’s most vigorous adversary … The duo that founded modernity …freedom to think
1… Rohmer’s My Night at Maud’s … P’s wager
3… The eternal silence of those infinite spaces frightens me (233)
[Surrounded by the void of the universe we agitate ourselves to very dubious purpose. –Edmund Wilson]
5…Parrot wipes its beak even though clean … automatic movements, animal machines … The chattering doctor, talks for 15 minutes after having said everything. Automaton.
7… Vanity of vanities, Ecclesiastes open, denouncing the emptiness of the world and men
“Well-crafted heel” … People take up what they have heard praised. So the choice of trades is an example of vanity. Those not motivated by envy and glory fall into indifference, inaction, indolence.
8… Local children, trained in humility, lacked in aspiration.
78... Detachment from the world, aversion to follies of the world, and constant reproach.
89… Diversions, the means of turning away from the misery of life. … How to remain at rest in a room.
How lovely, to withdraw, to stop, to rest! But no, there is nothing better than a vacation to give us migraine. As soon as we stop what we are doing, we are confronted with our own condition. So we bustle about.
Our agitation (warfare, gambling, hunting) is explained by the need to escape our fate.
92… Dissipation is a better cure for sorrow than quinine is for fever.
97… Heart has its reasons, which reason does not know. It is the heart that feels God and not reason.
103… The best books are those whose readers believe they could have produced themselves. … P conceived of reading as reading oneself in the book of another…. A pedagogy reminiscent of Socrates drawing out his questioners’ thoughts, seeking not to put his own wit on display but to let others discover theirs.
140… Wager. Making the bet brings a supplementary benefit, an immediate reward in this life itself. … What harm will befall you if you commit to this cause? You will be faithful, honest, humble, grateful, beneficent … I tell you that you will profit from it in this life. … By betting you win in any case, either afterlife or here below, it would thus be idiotic not to do it.
141… Capitalism: egoistic self-love drives us to seek wealth; by freeing desires, vice contributes to social wealth and order. “Private vices produce public good”, according to the maxim.

Moved to read by Epstein's review.
https://freebeacon.com/culture/for-pa...

[Agnes Fontana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Encore un excellent volume de la série "un été avec...", que je recommande de lire en hiver. Plus explicite que Les Pensées, très elliptiques, Antoine Compagnon nous fait faire des plongées fulgurantes dans l'univers de Pascal, sa vie (avec sa phase scientifique, sa phase mondaine, sa phase mystique), ses thèmes de prédilection, sa méthode... les topoi connus (le pari, l'ange et la bête, les semi-habiles, l'esprit de finesse et l'esprit de géométrie -auxquels il faut ajouter l'esprit de justesse, d'après l'auteur) mais aussi des aspects plus profonds du système de l'auteur. Avec ses approches parfois biographiques, parfois thématiques, parfois méthodologiques, Antoine Compagnon nous fait vraiment partager l'univers mental de Pascal et nous montre que même sur des thèmes qui nous semblent abscons aujourd'hui, comme la grâce efficace ou la grâce suffisante, Pascal déploie des raisonnements qui peuvent encore nous intéresser aujourd'hui, comme la pensée de derrière, la réconciliation des contraires... Il nous faudrait plus de passeurs comme Antoine Compagnon pour les auteurs d'un abord difficile.

[JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un bel hommage à Pascal. Des chroniques complètes à l'intérêt changeant. On sent qu'Antoine Compagnon a été tiraillé entre deux attitudes : rendre compte de façon exhaustive des théories Pascaliennes, ce qui est impossible compte tenu du format adopté ; ou réaliser un ouvrage de vulgarisation des fragments iconiques des Pensées. L'ouvrage dépasse néanmoins le cadre des Pensées puisqu'il contient d'autres passages issus notamment de la correspondance de Pascal. Le résultat est passionnant ! On voudrait presque croire en Dieu ... Pour autant, il manque certains fragments essentiels au profit d'autres moins connus, plus obscurs, moins intéressants, aussi, parfois.

[Davorin Horak]

Čitanje Comapgnona je uvijek divno iskustvo. Ovog puta i praktično, izvukao je sve što me zapravo zanima o Pascalu pa sad nemam potrebe čitati njegove Misli. Compagnon sjajno odmjerava Pascala i pogađa u srž, propisno gradi kontekst, ne osuđuje i dovlači Pascala u suvremenost jednostavnim, a opet moćnim crticama. Moguće je da bih osobno izvukao neke druge zaključke iz Misli da ih uzmem čitati, ali to je prije svega moja znatiželja za Pascalom matematičarom, a manje Pascaloom odmjerenim i čestitim čovjekom koji je u posljednjoj fazi života utoćište za svoj um našao u religiji. I da, Comagnon točno tumači neke od u svijet utočenih "popularnih" Pascalovih misli pa tako i čuvenu okladu.

[Graychin · Rating 3 out of 5]

From books like this we hope for a distillation or concentrated form of what’s of special interest in the subject. Unfortunately, what Compagnon offers is a watery dilution. It’s a common failing of secondary authorship. For every one person who says something of really remarkable interest, there are a hundred enthusiasts, of lesser talent and insight, who run around repeating and paraphrasing him. You’re better off reading the original.

[Florenceg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lecture thématique plutôt ardue quand on a très peu de connaissances sur le personnage. La personnalité et l'homme de sciences m'intriguent et me pousseraient à en savoir davantage. L'homme religieux me rebute et me déconserte. Un bon livre comme les autres de la série sur Montaigne et Baudelaire par Antoine Compagnon.

[Gilles Russeil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Si comme c'est mon cas, vous ne connaissez pratiquement rien de Pascal, ce livre est idéal : par petite touche, il vous présente 100 aspects de la vie, de l'oeuvre, du personnage et vous donne envie d'aller à sa rencontre.

[Charlotte · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cet essai s'adresse à des lecteur·ices qui connaissent déjà bien Pascal. Dommage, je pensais l'utiliser comme porte d'entrée vers sa pensée, et je manque cruellement d'éléments politiques et religieux pour comprendre les thèses développées.

[Zebulon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Agréable transcription de l'émission de radio.

[Herb · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dry as toast. Gave up. May come back to it when the mood strikes me.

[Марија Андреева · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy these "A Summer with" series. I learn new things and it is very interestingly presented.