Synopses & Reviews
Ever since the edifying life written by his sister in the months after his death, canonical representations of Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) have revered him for the scientific genius of his youth, the religious conversions of his mid-life, and the great books and greater saintliness of his last years. All this monumentalizes the hero, but it also reduces the man to a mind and spirit and it divides his life and work into unrelated halves. The preeminent specialist, Jean Mesnard, still picks up the subject where Gilberte Pascal left it in 1662. No historian in our language has even attempted to put the halves together again.
In Pascal: The Man and His Two Loves, John R. Cole reintegrates a life that began with familial attachments and achieved youthful marvels of invention and experiment with an Arithmetic Machine and Vacuum Experiments; Cole argues that love for his father spun the wheels and filled the void. Pascal then converted, having suffered particularly painful separations and losses; Cole's central chapters adapt Freudian methods to relate his newly ardent love of God to his prior love of parents. Finally, the convert wrote contrasting classics, the Provincial Letters and the Penses, before years of sanctified suffering terminated his work; Cole suggests that disciplined study of his affective life makes possible new readings of these great books.
Review
"The ostensible polarity between reason and emotion is central to many approaches to law. Susan Bandes offers valuable criticism of this view by noting the important roles that emotion and passion in fact play within the law. She has also brought together an outstanding collection of essays that, by addressing the issue from all perspectives, allows the reader to confront the issue in all of its complexity."-Sanford Levinson,coeditor of Constitutional Stupidities/Constitutional Tragedies
Review
"A fascinating and wide-ranging series on the role that emotion plays in the legal order."-Jack Balkin,
Review
"This splendid collection of engaging, user-friendly essays reveals in vivid detail how emotions are as much a part of the fabric of law as of the rest of life. Among the verdicts that emerge from these careful explorations is the long-overdue acquittal of passion on the charge of always sabotaging reason and justice."-Elizabeth V. Spelman,Professor, Smith College, and author of Fruits of Sorrow: Framing Our Attention to Suffering
Review
"The ostensible polarity between reason and emotion is central to many approaches to law. Susan Bandes offers valuable criticism of this view by noting the important roles that emotion and passion in fact play within the law. She has also brought together an outstanding collection of essays that, by addressing the issue from all perspectives, allows the reader to confront the issue in all of its complexity."
"This splendid collection of engaging, user-friendly essays reveals in vivid detail how emotions are as much a part of the fabric of law as of the rest of life. Among the verdicts that emerge from these careful explorations is the long-overdue acquittal of passion on the charge of always sabotaging reason and justice."
"An exciting intellectual adventure. If that type of voyage interests you, almost any page of this book will be a trip."
"An excellent collection of original essays . . .the current volume shines by being able to introduce these disparate approaches on emotions into a shared discourse."
"A fascinating and wide-ranging series on the role that emotion plays in the legal order."
Review
"An exciting intellectual adventure. If that type of voyage interests you, almost any page of this book will be a trip."-New York Law Journal,
Review
"An excellent collection of original essays . . .the current volume shines by being able to introduce these disparate approaches on emotions into a shared discourse."-The Law and Politics Book Review,
Review
"John R. Cole's Pascal is a work of love as well as of scholarly devotion. It brings alive a fascinating man and it makes fascinating reading--not only from beginning to end, but long afterwards, as we absorb all we have learned and are stimulated to think further. This book will be enjoyed by many, far beyond the fields of history and philosophy and regardless of prior knowledge of Pascal. I recommend it especially to everyone interested in the nature and development of human beings." -Erna Furman,author of A Child's Parent Dies
Synopsis
The Passions of Law is the first anthology to treat the role that emotions play, don't play, and ought to play in the practice and conception of law and justice. Lying at the intersection of law, psychology, and philosophy, this emergent field of law scholarship raises some of the most profound and interesting questions at the heart of jurisprudence. For example, what role do emotions ranging from disgust to compassion play in the decision-making processes of judges, lawyers, juries, and clients? What emotions belong in which legal contexts? Is there a hierarchy of emotions, and, if so, through what sources do we identify it? To what extent are emotions subject to change or tutelage? How can we evaluate the role of emotion in such disparate contexts as death sentencing, laws about same sex marriage, hate crime legislation, punitive damages or shaming penalties?
Consisting of original essays by leading scholars of law, theology, political science, and philosophy, The Passions of Law contributes to ongoing efforts to humanize law and reveals how this previously unacknowledged aspect of decision-making exerts a much greater impact on justice and the practice of law than most tend, or like, to think.
Learn more about Susan Bandes
About the Author
John R. Cole is Reynolds Professor of History at Bates College.
Herrick Chapman is Associate Professor of History and of French Civilization at New York University.