SOURCE: Brooks, Richard A. “Condorcet and Pascal.” In Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century: Transactions of the Second International Congress on the Enlightenment, edited by Theodore Besterman, pp. 297-307. Geneva: Institut et Musée Voltaire, 1967.

In the essay below, Brooks traces the progress of Condorcet's evaluation of Pascal, which began as admiration and eventually deteriorated into dismissive contempt of Pascal's religious beliefs.

One of the more remarkable critics of Pascal toward the end of the eighteenth century was the youthful mathematician and social philosopher Condorcet. The purpose of this paper is to trace the interesting evolution of Condorcet's attitude from that of appreciative admirer of the genius of Port-Royal to disapproving critic of the Jansenist religious fanatic. To be sure, the interpretation of Pascal first published by Condorcet when he was not much beyond the age of thirty already shows him to be a disciple of the...