We know the truth not only through our reason but through our heart. It is through the latter that we know first principles, and reason, which has nothing to do with it, tries in vain to refute them . . . Our inability must therefore serve only to humble reason, which would like to be the judge of everything, but not to confute our certainty (Pensees 110).
It is intriguing to discover the personality of Pascal, who I previously knew as an international unit of pressure.
Here again is a discussion of truth and the human method of grasping it. Aquinas delineated three avenues of obtaining Truth (with a capital "T") - knowledge, opinion, and faith. Hobbes claimed there is no avenue to obtain Truth since all our knowledge is conditional; something is true if it follows a logical deduction from "if this is, then this is" constructions dependent on an agreed definition, and we can never know something that simply "is." Blaise advocates a separate avenue, the "heart." As the introduction states, the heart comprehends "pre-rational first principle and assenting to supra-rational propositions" (xxiii). As a further element that differentiates the heart from any other avenue, the heart is not controlled by us (100). What exactly does he mean by the heart? Is it closely analogous to Descartes' clear and distinct perception? How does it reconcile with Pascal's Hobbesian belief that true (perhaps True) justice is following the customs of one's country, a first principle seemingly derived from observing the inconsistent beliefs of humanity (86).
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