Reason vs Passions
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

The author describes the perpetual internal conflict of man, who is torn between reason and passion and can never find peace with one without being at war with the other.

...t strange that he endured life. Who is unhappy at having only one mouth? And who is not unhappy at having only one eye? Probably no man ever ventured to mourn at not having three eyes. But any one is inconsolable at having none. 410 Perseus, King of Macedon.--Paulus Æmilius reproached Perseus for not killing himself. 411 Notwithstanding the sight of all our miseries, which press upon us and take us by the throat, we have an instinct which we cannot repress, and which lifts us up. 412
There is internal war in man between reason and the passions. If he had only reason without passions ... If he had only passions without reason ... But having both, he cannot be without strife, being unable to be at peace with the one without being at war with the other. Thus he is always divided against, and opposed to himself.
413 This internal war of reason against the passions has made a division of those who would have peace into two sects. The first would renounce their passions, and become gods; the others would renounce reason, and become brute beasts. (Des Barreaux.)[157] But neither can do so, and reason still remains, to condemn the vileness and injustice of the passions, and to trouble the repose of those who abandon themselves to them; and the passions keep always alive in those who would renounce them....
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Reason's Unreasonable Search
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

A critique of human reason's arrogance, noting that while reason is noble enough to admit its past failures in finding durable truth, it remains stubbornly confident in its own powers to eventually succeed.

...wiser, think to find a better definition. We are well satisfied. To transpose after the laws to the following title. We must see if this fine philosophy have gained nothing certain from so long and so intent study; perhaps at least the soul will know itself. Let us hear the rulers of the world on this subject. What have they thought of her substance? 394.[38] Have they been more fortunate in locating her? 395.[39] What have they found out about her origin, duration, and departure? 399.[40]
Is then the soul too noble a subject for their feeble lights? Let us then abase her to matter and see if she knows whereof is made the very body which she animates, and those others which she contemplates and moves at her will. What have those great dogmatists, who are ignorant of nothing, known of this matter? Harum sententiarum, 393. This would doubtless suffice, if reason were reasonable. She is reasonable enough to admit that she has been unable to find anything durable, but she does not yet despair of reaching it; she is as ardent as ever in this search, and is confident she has within her the necessary powers for this conquest.
We must therefore conclude, and, after having examined her powers in their effects, observe them in themselves, and see if she has a nature and a grasp capable of laying hold of the truth.] 74 A letter On the Foolishness of Human Knowledge and Philosophy. This letter before Diversion. Felix qui potuit ... Nihil admirari.[42] 280 kinds of sovereign good in Montaigne.[43] 75 Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] [Probability.--It will not be difficult to put the case a stage lower,...
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Reason's Absolute Command
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

The author asserts that the authority of reason is more absolute than that of a human master, as disobeying reason is an act of folly rather than mere misfortune.

...se, nor any other thing showing mind. 342 If an animal did by mind what it does by instinct, and if it spoke by mind what it speaks by instinct, in hunting, and in warning its mates that the prey is found or lost; it would indeed also speak in regard to those things which affect it closer, as example, "Gnaw me this cord which is wounding me, and which I cannot reach." 343 The beak of the parrot, which it wipes, although it is clean. 344 Instinct and reason, marks of two natures. 345
Reason commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are fools.
346 Thought constitutes the greatness of man. 347 Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A vapour, a drop of water suffices to kill him. But, if the universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over him; the universe knows nothing of this. All our dignity consists, then, in thought. By...
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Reason's Inescapable Limits
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

A confession regarding the human condition, caught between an inability to prove absolute truths and an inability to succumb to total skepticism.

...having renounced all the laws of God and nature, have made laws for themselves which they strictly obey, as, for instance, the soldiers of Mahomet, robbers, heretics, etc. It is the same with logicians. It seems that their licence must be without any limits or barriers, since they have broken through so many that are so just and sacred. 394 All the principles of sceptics, stoics, atheists, etc., are true. But their conclusions are false, because the opposite principles are also true. 395
Instinct, reason.--We have an incapacity of proof, insurmountable by all dogmatism. We have an idea of truth, invincible to all scepticism.
396 Two things instruct man about his whole nature; instinct and experience. 397 The greatness of man is great in that he knows himself to be miserable. A tree does not know itself to be miserable. It is then being miserable to know oneself to be miserable; but it is also being great to know that one is miserable. 398 All these same miseries prove man's greatness. They are the miseries of a great lord, of a deposed king. 399 We are not miserable without feeling it. A ruined house is...
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Reason's Necessary Limits
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

Pascal argues for a balance between faith and intellect, suggesting that reason's highest act is recognizing its own limits in the face of the supernatural.

...ing everything, from want of knowing where to submit; or by submitting in everything, from want of knowing where they must judge. 269 Submission is the use of reason in which consists true Christianity. 270 St. Augustine.[104]--Reason would never submit, if it did not judge that there are some occasions on which it ought to submit. It is then right for it to submit, when it judges that it ought to submit. 271 Wisdom sends us to childhood. Nisi efficiamini sicut parvuli.[105] 272
There is nothing so conformable to reason as this disavowal of reason. 273 If we submit everything to reason, our religion will have no mysterious and supernatural element. If we offend the principles of reason, our religion will be absurd and ridiculous.
274 All our reasoning reduces itself to yielding to feeling. But fancy is like, though contrary to feeling, so that we cannot distinguish between these contraries. One person says that my feeling is fancy, another that his fancy is feeling. We should have a rule. Reason offers itself; but it is pliable in every sense; and thus there is no rule. 275 Men often take their imagination for their heart; and they believe they are converted as soon as they think of being converted. 276 M. de...
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