ABSTRACT

THIS second section will inevitably be very different from the first, both in its subject matter and in its greater aspiration to scientific accuracy. I shall therefore begin by explaining why I have not adopted one of the two traditional ways of studying literature and philosophy: that of separating the works from any discussion of their economic, social or political context, or, alternatively, of merely selecting certain arbitrary elements of this context and emphasising them in a spectacular manner. The aim of this chapter is to justify the existence of Chapters VI and VII, and to do so in the name of a scientific study of history and literature. The sole aim of these two chapters will be to indicate the enormous amount of information that we still need to collect if we are to base our knowledge of Pascal and Racine on a really firm footing.