Pascal and the Art of Persuasion

Abstract

Besides being an ardent believer and a sensitive man, Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) was first and foremost an important mathematician, with little time for philosophy in general and metaphysics in particular. He considered metaphysical speculations as having no value and rejected the ‘God of the philosophers’. On the contrary he explicitly and regularly confessed his belief in ‘the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’, and ‘in the Father of Jezus of Nazareth’, and this God according to Pascal, can only be known in and through Christ. Even traditional logic as a way to the truth gained little appreciation from him, preferring by far the mathematical and geometrical method; he writes: “The infallible method is sought by everyone. Logicians make a profession out of proceeding towards it, while geometricians are the only ones to reach it, and outside this science and those who imitate it, there are no true demonstrations.” This does not mean that there would be no truth or insight outside mathematics. On the contrary Pascal distinguishes ‘esprit géométrique’ from “esprit de finesse”. The latter is a shrewd and intuitive appreciation of and insight into what is going on in people and in the world, what people mean and want, and what needs to be done, while the former can produce a perfectly reliable proof of whatever is asserted. Pascal remarks that booth are seldom to be found united in one man; indeed there is even an obstinate lack of understanding between them.