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{"id":520,"date":"2013-01-15T14:09:34","date_gmt":"2013-01-15T21:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/drybones\/?p=520"},"modified":"2013-01-15T14:09:34","modified_gmt":"2013-01-15T21:09:34","slug":"becoming-neo-pascalian-a-personality-quirk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/drybones\/2013\/01\/becoming-neo-pascalian-a-personality-quirk\/","title":{"rendered":"Becoming Neo-Pascalian: A Personality Quirk?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>As we pointed out last week, Pascal\u2019s actual scientific and mathematical work has been far surpassed. We may like stories about Euclid and Galileo, Newton and Leibniz but we don\u2019t usually come across them in the Google rankings of \u201cmost quotable.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, for a scientist\/logician\/mathematician, Pascal has a remarkably unscientific reputation among many contemporary French people. Those whose knowledge of Pascal\u2019s ideas may be marginal but who have some sense that his contemporary, Descartes, was a hard core rationalist may speak flippantly about whether a person is \u201cPascalian\u201d or \u201cCartesian.\u201d (You have to say those words with a lyrical beginning and a nasally ending. Try it now\u2026 I\u2019ll wait.) Forget the Myers-Briggs personality scale; forget the Enneagram. There are only two kinds of people: a Pascalian\u2014purely intuitive, imaginative, and slightly irresponsible; or a Cartesian\u2014rationalist, logical, and orderly.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s just say that Pascal probably would have been disappointed in this legacy, for he firmly believed in the power of reason. He simply understood its limitations. As he once wrote, \u201cReason\u2019s last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it. It is merely feeble if it does not go as far as to realize that\u201d (f. 188)*<\/p>\n

A true rationalist, Pascal might argue, is one who, without any illusions, understands that rationalism does not yield comprehensive, universal knowledge. That is, our ability to think clearly and effectively about the world can reveal a great deal, but it cannot tell us everything we might wish to know. There are some things\u2013some realities\u2013that cannot be explored through our minds.<\/p>\n

The Enlightenment thinkers, hovering on Pascal\u2019s horizon, and their heirs (among us today in the form of many scientific materialists and metaphysical naturalists) all would snort in derision. For them, the world is an open book, and while we may not yet be able to read it fully, it is essentially<\/em> accessible by the intellect. The possibility that there is genuine knowledge which the intellect cannot grasp\u2013in part or in full\u2013but which can be acquired through another human aptitude is the question.<\/p>\n

So yes, indeed, Pascal was a rationalist as far as rationalism can go. Far from a dreamy idealism, Pascal\u2019s thinking was clear, bold, and challenging. He stood out amongst his peers in radical ways\u2026 which got him in more than a little trouble. And to understand his enduring message, we need to understand the peers, the trouble, and the challenge. (Ready for a little French history?)<\/p>\n

* [Now, a note here about citing Pascal is in order. Pascal\u2019s most famous work is called Pens\u00e9es<\/em>, which simply means \u201cthoughts.\u201d It isn\u2019t a completed work in any sense, merely a compilation of notes that he was making for a book he intended to write. He died before he could actually write it. So the notes are all numbered, and we call those notes \u201cfragments.\u201d When you cite a pens\u00e9e<\/em>, you put the fragment number in parentheses at the end. As above.<\/p>\n

One of the more confusing parts of studying Pascal\u2019s Pens\u00e9es<\/em> is the discrepancy in editions. Translators in different eras have ordered the fragments differently, and thus if I cite fragment 188, it\u2019s only #188 in the Lafuma edition. It\u2019ll be something else in, say, the Sellier edition. Bother! So, if you\u2019re following along in this conversation and want to look up fragments as we talk about them, it\u2019ll be helpful if you have the same edition\/translation. I\u2019m using the Penguin edition<\/a>, following the Lafuma ordering.]<\/p>\n

_____________________<\/p>\n

Note to Reader<\/em><\/strong>: This series on Becoming Neo-Pascalian considers some of the ways Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) speaks into the 21st century. It draws from my own research, published in <\/em>Beyond the Contingent<\/em><\/a> (2011), and citations are from the book, unless otherwise noted.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"