Philosophers startle ordinary people. Christians astonish the philosophers."" - Pascal, Pens? (R)es In Wagering on an Ironic God Thomas S. Hibbs both startles and astonishes. He does so by offering a new interpretation of Pascal's Pens? (R)es and by showing the importance of Pascal in and for a philosophy of religion. Hibbs resists the temptation to focus exclusively on Pascal's famous ""wager"" or to be beguiled by the fragmentary and presumably incomplete nature of Pens? (R)es. Instead he discovers in Pens? (R)es a coherent and comprehensive project, one in which Pascal contributed to the ancient debate over the best way of life - a life of true happiness and true virtue. Hibbs situates Pascal in relation to early modern French philosophers, particularly Montaigne and Descartes. These three French thinkers offer distinctly modern accounts of the good life. Montaigne advocates the private life of authentic self-expression, while Descartes favors the public goods of progressive enlightenment science and its promise of the mastery of nature. Pascal, by contrast, renders an account of the Christian religion that engages modern subjectivity and science on its own terms and seeks to vindicate the wisdom of the Christian vision by showing that it, better than any of its rivals, truly understands human nature. Though all three philosophers share a preoccupation with Socrates, each finds in that figure a distinct account of philosophy and its aims. Pascal finds in Socrates a philosophy rich in irony: philosophy is marked by a deep yearning for wisdom that is never wholly achieved. Philosophy is a quest without attainment, a love never obtained. Absent Cartesian certainty or the ambivalence of Montaigne, Pascal's practice of Socratic irony acknowledges the disorder of humanity without discouraging its quest. Instead, the quest for wisdom alerts the seeker to the presence of a hidden God. God, according to Pascal, both conceals and reveals, fulfilling the philosophical aspiration for happiness and the good life only by subverting philosophy's very self-understanding. Pascal thus wagers all on the irony of a God who both startles and astonishes wisdom's true lovers.
Thomas Hibbs is Associate Professor of Philosophy, Boston College.
Part One. Irony, Philosophy, and the Christian Faith Section 1. Pascal and the Ancient Quarrel over the Best Way of Life Section 2. Irony Rehabilitated Section 3. The Figure of Socrates in Early Modern Philosophy: Montaigne, Descartes, and Pascal Section 4. Divine Irony as an Alternative to Deism and Voluntarism Part Two. Socratic Immanence: Montaigne's Recovery of Philosophy as a Way of Life Section 1. Socratic Self-Knowledge and the Art of Living Section 2. Against Speculative Philosophy Section 3. Montaigne's Confessions Section 4. Death, Diversion, and the Supernatural Part Three. The Virtue of Science and the Science of Virtue: Descartes' Overcoming of Socrates Section 1. The Arts of Writing and the Science of Living Section 2. Recovering and Overcoming Socrates Section 3. Descartes' New Science of Virtue Section 4. Theology, Philosophical Irony, and the Arts of (Re-)Writing Part Four. The Quest for Wisdom: Pascal and Philosophy Section 1. Socrates and the Quest for the Good Life Section 2. Ironic Reversal: The Reduction of Cartesian Certitude to Socratic Amazement Section 3. Philosophy Deconstructed? Pascal Deconstructed? Section 4. The Restless Heart: Pascal's Residual Teleology Section 5. Pascal's Methods and the Quest for a Synoptic Vision Part Five. Wagering on an Ironic God Section 1. Rereading the Wager Section 2. Wagering as Self-Emptying Section 3. The Problem of Hope Section 4. Neither Deism nor Voluntarism Section 5. Christ as Eucharistic Cipher
"Philosophers startle ordinary people. Christians astonish the philosophers." -- Pascal, Pensees Towards the end of Wagering on an Ironic God , Thomas Hibbs asks his reader: 'How much more rewarding would our discussions (dare we say our lives?) be if they were informed by the writings of Montaigne, Descartes, and Pascal?'. Wagering reads like an invitation to such a discussion with Hibbs, and evidences many of the delights and peculiarities of such a conversation. -- J. Columcille Dever -- Modern Theology An original and probing interpretation of Pascal's wager, reconstructed along the line of Socratic ignorance. -- John J. Conley, S.J -- International Philosophical Quarterly ...Thomas Hibbs is intent on bringing Pascal and his distinctive thought to the fore. In doing so, he makes a signal contribution to our understanding of modern philosophy itself. He not only rehabilitates Pascal, but sheds important light on his philosophical interlocutors, Montaigne and Descartes. This book could be profitably read merely for its treatments of Montaigne and Descartes. But the triangle of Montaigne, Descartes, and Pascal is historically apposite and philosophically quite illuminating. -- Paul Seaton -- The Review of Politics Hibbs's book is appropriate for those interested in Pascal's thought, and the major philosophical influences that played a central role in the forming of Pascal's thought. It also serves as a corrective for the common tendency to focus only on the wager, while ignoring all else found in Pascal's Pensees . -- Jeff Jordan -- The Review of Metaphysics
