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Single Idea 22011

[filed under theme 12. Knowledge Sources / C. Rationalism / 1. Rationalism ]

Full Idea

We know the truth not only through our reason but also through our heart. It is through that latter that we know first principles, and reason, which has nothing to do with it, tries in vain to refute them.

Gist of Idea

The first principles of truth are not rational, but are known by the heart

Source

Blaise Pascal (Pensées [1662], 110 p.58), quoted by Terry Pinkard - German Philosophy 1760-1860 04 n4

Book Ref

Pinkard,Terry: 'German Philosophy 1760-1860' [CUP 2002], p.91

A Reaction

This resembles the rationalist defence of fundamental a priori principles, needed as a foundation for knowledge. But the a priori insights are not a feature of the 'natural light' of reason, and are presumably inexplicable (of the 'heart').

The 15 ideas from Blaise Pascal

6677 Imagination creates beauty, justice and happiness, which is the supreme good [Pascal]
6678 We live for the past or future, and so are never happy in the present [Pascal]
6679 It is not good to be too free [Pascal]
6680 It is a funny sort of justice whose limits are marked by a river [Pascal]
6681 We only want to know things so that we can talk about them [Pascal]
6682 Majority opinion is visible and authoritative, although not very clever [Pascal]
22011 The first principles of truth are not rational, but are known by the heart [Pascal]
6676 Painting makes us admire things of which we do not admire the originals [Pascal]
7455 Pascal knows you can't force belief, but you can make it much more probable [Pascal, by Hacking]
7457 Pascal is right, but relies on the unsupported claim of a half as the chance of God's existence [Hacking on Pascal]
7456 The libertine would lose a life of enjoyable sin if he chose the cloisters [Hacking on Pascal]
6684 If you win the wager on God's existence you win everything, if you lose you lose nothing [Pascal]
6675 The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing [Pascal]
20732 If man considers himself as lost and imprisoned in the universe, he will be terrified [Pascal]
10121 Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor lack of contradiction a sign of truth [Pascal]