First published in 1964, this classic text uses the concept of “world visions,” first elaborated in the early work of Georg Lukács, as a tool whereby the similarities between Pascal’s Pensées and Kant’s critical philosophy are contrasted with the ra-tionalism of Descartes and the empiricism of Hume. For Lucien Goldmann, a leading exponent of the most fruitful method of applying Marxist ideas to literary and philosophical problems, the “tragic vision” marked an important phase in the development...
