{"title":"The Order of Charity","authors":"M. Moriarty","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198849117.003.0019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198849117.003.0019","url":null,"abstract":"The apparent disorderliness of Scripture is merely superficial; it possesses a non-logical order which appeals to the heart. The affective aspects of this notion (hitherto subordinated to the cognitive) are discussed, in ways that illuminate Pascal’s conception of faith. The fundamental message of Scripture is the necessity of charity (the love of God). The notion of the three orders (the flesh, the mind, and the will) is explained. The greatness of Christ is as much above intellectual greatness as intellectual values transcend purely material magnitude. The love of God enables liberation from toxic self-love: the Christian ethic consists in learning to see ourselves not as isolated entities but as ‘thinking members’, parts of a spiritual body, the community of the faithful.","PeriodicalId":179526,"journal":{"name":"Pascal: Reasoning and Belief","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123395022","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Conclusion","authors":"M. Moriarty","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198849117.003.0021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198849117.003.0021","url":null,"abstract":"There is a brief discussion of Pascal’s affinities with existentialism. One of these concerns his denial that we can infer moral norms from human nature as it is. Our attitude to human nature will largely condition how we react to his philosophy. His arguments for Christian belief are to a certain extent detachable from his particular version of Augustinian theology. He remains relevant partly because we cannot escape confronting human nature as a problem and because he insists on the liberating potential of Christianity. He functions still as a witness to his faith.","PeriodicalId":179526,"journal":{"name":"Pascal: Reasoning and Belief","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132526053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Diversion","authors":"M. Moriarty","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198849117.003.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198849117.003.0012","url":null,"abstract":"Having established that Christianity, through the doctrine of the Fall, throws light on the contradictions of human nature, Pascal turns his attention to its capacity to satisfy our desire for happiness. He begins by arguing that our particular day-to-day activities are driven, first, by the desire to keep at bay painful reflections on our vulnerable and mortal condition, and, secondly, by the desire to gratify our vanity. This applies both to recreational activities and to work. This analysis is subjected to critical examination: Pascal has overlooked our natural impulse to exercise our capacities and to find pleasure in the exercise. But the question as to the ultimate value of these activities remains.","PeriodicalId":179526,"journal":{"name":"Pascal: Reasoning and Belief","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114429656","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Fall","authors":"Michael McBride","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198849117.003.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198849117.003.0010","url":null,"abstract":"Pascal argues that the doctrine of the Fall explains the contradictions he has studied. Human nature has been transformed by original sin. Our ‘greatness’ is the residue of our former nature, the vestigial memory of which takes the form of our frustration at the ‘wretchedness’ into which we have fallen. Pascal’s particular conception of the Fall is essentially inspired by St Augustine, from whom he derives the key notion of concupiscence (earthly desire), and certain problems in the Augustinian theory are discussed. The chapter concludes by mentioning more recent presentations of the doctrine in the work of Kierkegaard and Rahner, and of contemporary theologians discussing the relationship between the doctrine and findings in biology.","PeriodicalId":179526,"journal":{"name":"Pascal: Reasoning and Belief","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122381227","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Transition","authors":"M. Moriarty","doi":"10.2307/j.ctvp2n4kr.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvp2n4kr.13","url":null,"abstract":"The Pensées section ‘Transition from the knowledge of man to the knowledge of God’ is not so much concerned to propel an argument forward as to deepen insights already arrived at in earlier sections. Pascal stresses the radical contingency of the human condition, as manifested in our subjection to custom. He invites the reader to consider the two infinites: we are imperceptibly small in the vastness of the universe, yet there are imperceptible creatures in relation to whom we are colossal. Our fundamental nature is incomprehensible either in dualist or in non-dualist terms. There is a gulf between conscious humanity (the ‘thinking reed’) and unconscious matter. Our distinctive attribute is the power of thought, and we must cultivate this if we are to respond appropriately to our condition.","PeriodicalId":179526,"journal":{"name":"Pascal: Reasoning and Belief","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123650547","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Human Greatness","authors":"M. Moriarty","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198849117.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198849117.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"The ‘greatness’ Pascal discerns in humanity has four aspects. 1. Human nature is not purely physical. Pascal upholds a broadly Cartesian dualist view. He acknowledges the difficulty of this but also insists on the difficulty of any alternative explanation, for instance, in purely physical terms. 2. Humankind is radically distinct from the animals. It is argued that Pascal’s formulation of this claim (reducing animal functioning to mere mechanism) is untenable, but that a modified version of his position might suffice for his apologetic purposes. 3. Pyrrhonist scepticism is not the last word: we are capable of knowledge after all, that is (as initially explained in Chapter 4), we have intuitive knowledge (what he calls knowledge ‘by the heart’) of certain primary principles. 4. That we are aware of our wretchedness shows that we are not wholly wretched, completely locked into our condition, for otherwise we should be unable to detach ourselves sufficiently to pass judgement on it. Our dissatisfaction with our lives is a kind of transcendence of their limits.","PeriodicalId":179526,"journal":{"name":"Pascal: Reasoning and Belief","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122324664","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Contexts","authors":"M. Moriarty","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198849117.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198849117.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter gives a brief account of Pascal’s life and of the scientific and religious contexts of his work. It discusses his social milieu, with its characteristic ethos, and points to the importance of the civil war known as the Fronde for his thinking about politics. It describes his scientific formation and his rejection of Aristotelian orthodoxy in favour of the new science propounded by Descartes. Pascal’s religious thought was deeply influenced by the Augustinian theology of Cornelius Jansenius, the development of which is placed in its historical context and the key tenets of which are summarized here. A brief history is given of the Jansenist movement in France, centred on the nunnery at Port-Royal and on the community that grew around it.","PeriodicalId":179526,"journal":{"name":"Pascal: Reasoning and Belief","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129840721","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Self","authors":"M. Moriarty","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198849117.003.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198849117.003.0011","url":null,"abstract":"Pascal believes that human beings are in thrall to an uncontrollable self-love, a self-centredness that sets them at odds with their fellow creatures and that is intrinsically unjust. (For this reason he rejects the ethic of honnêteté—politeness, consideration for others—as inadequate.) Self-love involves both the urge to tyrannize over others and the desire for recognition from them. A long fragment on the nature of the self establishes that we know others only through their qualities, and thus that a direct self-to-self relationship is impossible. Love between human beings is intrinsically flawed since no human being can be another’s fulfilment. Various objections to this line of argument are considered (Pascal’s conception of love is a very partial one), and the conclusion is that, powerful though his analysis his, he has not established that the nature of self-love is a further reason for believing in the Fall.","PeriodicalId":179526,"journal":{"name":"Pascal: Reasoning and Belief","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127745721","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Order and Disorder","authors":"M. Moriarty","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198849117.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198849117.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"Pascal holds that the persuasive power of an argument depends greatly on its order or disposition. But he himself claims to be writing without order. This chapter aims at reconciling this apparent contradiction. Evidence for the manner in which he intended to arrange his materials is discussed, and the rival theories of different scholars, in particular Jean Mesnard and Philippe Sellier, are expounded in some detail. Aware that unbelievers may be hostile to Christianity, Pascal argues, first, that Christianity is not contrary to reason (it deserves respect, because it shows real knowledge of human nature), and, secondly, that it is attractive because it promises genuine happiness, presumably by reference to Scripture. The expository order adopted in this book is explained.","PeriodicalId":179526,"journal":{"name":"Pascal: Reasoning and Belief","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132742433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Contradictions","authors":"M. Moriarty","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780198849117.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198849117.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"The conflict between the greatness and the wretchedness of human nature is considered on a more philosophical level. The Stoics do justice to our moral ideals but the Pyrrhonists (whom Pascal sees as implicitly putting humankind on a level with non-human animals) seem better to describe human beings in the mass. The quest for an essence of human nature is compromised by an awareness of the power of custom to determine our beliefs and values. Even our belief in fundamental principles may be based on custom. Yet radical scepticism is in practice unacceptable. The clash between dogmatism (the belief that we have knowledge) and scepticism is irreconcilable. Only the Christian doctrine of the Fall can enable us to get out of this impasse.","PeriodicalId":179526,"journal":{"name":"Pascal: Reasoning and Belief","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121653688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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