As Razões do Coração: Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) no 400.º Aniversário do seu Nascimento
The Reasons of the Heart: Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) on the 400th Anniversary of His Birth
Editors: Andreas Gonçalves Lind; Nuno Ferro
2023, Volume 79, No. 4
DOI https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_0000
As Razões do Coração: Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) no 400.º Aniversário do seu Nascimento
| Editor | Andreas Gonçalves Lind |
|---|---|
| Editor | Nuno Ferro |
| Rights | © 2023 Aletheia - Associação Científica e Cultural | © 2023 Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia |
| Publication | Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia |
| Volume | 79 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Place | Braga |
| Publisher | Axioma - Publicações da Faculdade de Filosofia |
|
ISBN |
9789726973768 (Paperback) ; 9789726973775 (eBook) |
|
ISSN |
0870-5283; 2183-461X |
| Date | 2023 |
| DOI | 10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_0000 |
| Language | Portuguese, English, Italian, French, Spanish |
| # of Pages | 584 |
| Date Added | 31/01/2024 |
| Modified | 31/01/2024 |
| Presentation |
June 19, 2023 was the 400th anniversary of the birth of Blaise Pascal (1623-1662). The present issue of the Portuguese Philosophical Journal (Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia) seeks to take advantage of this occasion to revisit the work and legacy of this important modern author. The son of a renowned mathematician and advisor to the King of France, Blaise Pascal received a meticulous and comprehensive education, both in literature and in the empirical sciences. His genius revealed itself early on in various domains of human knowledge. The contributions he made to the advancement of mathematics and technology, with the invention of the first decimal calculator, for example, attest to his unmistakable dedication to scientific truth. However, although he was committed to studying and understanding the laws of mathematics and nature, he never clung to the rationalists’ belief that there was a single method that could unveil the universal principles of all reality. Indeed, the interest Pascal shows in Christian Revelation, wherein he finds an existential path that responds to the restlessness that pulses in the heart, is mirrored in the set of writings in which Pascal departs from the strictly scientific realm of mathematics and nature. It is the thirst for the absolute that makes him sensitive to what he calls “reasons of the heart:” a kind of immediate knowledge of indemonstrable principles, belonging to the third order above the body and mind. One is dealing, here, with the perceived interiority of the human being, with its affective dimension, which, nevertheless, cannot be reduced to mere feelings. The fact that the reasons of the heart are unknown to universal Reason, and that the God of the Philosophers does not correspond to the biblical God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, does not imply that Pascal fragments the reality in which human beings exist. In fact, he dreams of a project that is able to connect secular and Christian society into a unity of life proper to the inner human person. In this sense, we can say that he surpassed philosophical modernity. It is also important not to forget the influence of his personal history so on the development of thought. We are thinking, in particular, of Jansenism, which shaped the France of his time. In this context, one sees how Pascal comes close to the Jansenism of Port-Royal when he tries to find the Mediator between his finite self, and the God upon whom he wagers his whole life. If universal Reason is not capable of knowing whether God exists, the wager is confirmed by the reasons that the inner person experiences within the heart. Inasmuch as Pascal chooses for God’s existence, the confirmation of the truth comes about through the pacification of his existential restlessness. Thus, the paradoxical experience of closeness and distance, never resolved, between God and human beings, reveals that the question of God is, first of all, anthropological in nature. Indeed, it is the human misery that opens up a person to God. It is the enigma of death, which he can neither avoid nor know, that puts him in the situation of one who does not know where he comes from nor where he is going. And this is why the greatness of humans resides, according to Pascal, in the awareness of their own limits and weaknesses.
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| Contents |
Andreas Gonçalves Lind and Nuno Ferro, “The Reasons of the Heart: Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) on the 400th Anniversary of His Birth,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1289–94, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1289.
Vincent Carraud, “Fausses fenêtres : Étienne Pascal et Étienne Noël, saint Augustin et Jean Duvergier de Hauranne,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1297–1336, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1297.
Claudio Buccolini, “Les nombres parfaits chez Mersenne : des mystères pythagoriques à la science et à l’exégèse,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1337–44, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1337.
Benoît Vermander, “Lecture de l’Écriture et écriture des Pensées,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1345–66, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1345.
Nicolò Germano, “Rilegature gianseniste. Appunti su Pascal e il giansenismo,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1367–82, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1367.
Carmen Herrando, “José Jiménez Lozano. Un lector español de Pascal,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1383–1413, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1383.
Laurent Thirouin, “Grandeur de l’homme, selon Pascal,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1419–40, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1419.
Denis Moreau, “« Je vous dis que vous y gagnerez en cette vie ». Réflexions sur la stratégie apologétique dans le « pari » de Pascal,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1441–72, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1441.
Laurence Devillairs, “Pascal. Ni être ni néant : le vide de notre nature,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1473–90, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1473.
Lucie Lebreton, “Pascal, penseur du désordre,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1493–1526, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1493.
Matthew Clemons, “Pascal’s ‘Order of the Heart’ in Phenomenological Value-Theory,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1527–48, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1527.
Antony McKenna, “Le sentiment dans les Pensées de Pascal: son origine, ses fonctions, son statut,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1549–74, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1549.
Marie-Jeanne Coutagne, “Pascal au-delà des contrariétés : silence et présence,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1575–92, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1575.
Nuno Ferro, “O silêncio das coisas (outra vez...) e a solidão,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1593–1640, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1593.
Jérôme de Gramont, “Le clair-obscur pascalien – de la Révélation au nihilisme,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1643–60, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1643.
Manuel Palma Ramírez, “Suficiente luz y suficientes sombras. Descripción fenomenológica de la muerte de Cristo en los escritos de Blaise y Jacqueline Pascal,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1661–98, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1661.
Sylvain Josset, “„Stammt alles vom Heiligen Geist“?,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1699–1722, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1699.
Domenico Bosco, “Il «Scio cui credidi» pascaliano. Il senso di un sigillo,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1723–56, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1723.
Jean-Luc Marion, “O Que Vê o Coração. Pascal e a distinção das ordens,” trans. Andreas Gonçalves Lind, Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1759–74, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1759.
Varia
Hugo Luzio, “O Problema dos Pensadores Artificiais: Um Debate Metafísico,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1777–1802, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1777.
Federico Ferraguto, “Sulla scelta della filosofia secondo Fichte,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1803–28, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1803.
Andreas Gonçalves Lind, “Book Review - Gabellieri, Emmanuel. Être et Grâce. Simone Weil et le christianisme. Collection « Philosophie & Théologie ». Paris : Les Éditions du Cerf, 2023.,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1831–36, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1831.
J. Robbert Zandbergen, “Book Review - Vermander Benoît. The Encounter of Chinese and Western Philosophies: A Critique. Berlin & Boston, MA: De Gruyter, 2023.,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1837–44, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1837.
Ricardo Barroso Batista, “Book Review - Wallace, Meg. Parts and Wholes. Elements in Metaphysics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79, no. 4 (2023): 1845–48, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2023_79_4_1845. |
