Abstract

This is much more than a sensitive study of Pascal and Racine. Using Lukács concept of a world vision—"the psychic expression of the relationship between certain human groups and their social or physical environment"-Goldmann applies a dialectical method to the interpretation of what he calls "the tragic vision." This is a coherent world vision expressed in the works of Pascal, Racine, Kant, and the Jansenists. Goldmann argues that this coherent vision supersedes rationalism and empiricism and is at the same time the forerunner of the dialectical vision of Hegel and Marx. The work is rich in insights and provides an excellent occasion for evaluating Marxist interpretation at its best.—-R. J. B.