Conservatism and Social Criticism: Pascal on Faith, Reason, and Politics

Abstract

This chapter will reconstruct the main lines of Pascal’s critique and correction of Descartes’ conception of reason. As understood by Pascal, Descartes conceived of reason as being independent of all other belief-forming faculties, including the senses, custom, tradition, and divine revelation. This has been called autonomous reason. Pascal argues that such a conception of reason is self-defeating and thus impossible to consistently implement. He is careful to insist, however, that his criticism of autonomous reason is not irrational, but in fact conforms to a more holistic account of what it means to be rational. Pascal’s epistemology is bound up with his view that human nature is characterized by a fundamental duality of greatness and wretchedness, such that neither complete ignorance nor absolute knowledge is our lot. This middle position rejects fideism as well as autonomous reason. The final section will draw out the political import of his epistemological vision. Cartesian rationalism lays the groundwork for political rationalism, so it is not surprising to see in the few fragments Pascal devoted to political themes a criticism of overly rationalist conceptions of law, justice, and political order. In them he begins to sketch a politics that eschews the rationalist drive for certainty and universality. The enlightenment goal of first principles of justice is not only impossible, Pascal argues, but will leave political societies vulnerable to revolution and disorder once rationalist aspirations have undermined traditional modes of political authority.This chapter will contribute to the scholarly understanding of Pascal in two distinct ways. First, while my depiction of Pascal’s epistemology will be roughly in line with existing accounts, there are two recent books that attempt to modify how we think about Pascal as a philosopher. My chapter will weigh their respective arguments and modifications in order to determine the manner in which they can be incorporated into Pascal’s broader epistemology. Second, this chapter will develop Pascal’s political theory to a greater extent than has so far been done. Most philosophical attention to Pascal has focused on his epistemology or theology; I will attempt to formalize his political teaching and, in particular, clarify the way in which it follows from his epistemology and anthropology.