Contexts

This chapter gives a brief account of Pascal’s life and of the scientific and religious contexts of his work. It discusses his social milieu, with its characteristic ethos, and points to the importance of the civil war known as the Fronde for his thinking about politics. It describes his scientific formation and his rejection of Aristotelian orthodoxy in favour of the new science propounded by Descartes. Pascal’s religious thought was deeply influenced by the Augustinian theology of Cornelius Jansenius, the development of which is placed in its historical context and the key tenets of which are summarized here. A brief history is given of the Jansenist movement in France, centred on the nunnery at Port-Royal and on the community that grew around it.