Walk the Line. Pascal on Meaning, Rules and Skepticism

Journal of Early Modern Studies 13 (1):129-156 (2024)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The relation of Pascal’s philosophy to language is well-known. Pascal’s rhetorical considerations, his reflections on the language of “honnêteté”, and the analysis of definition in De l’Esprit géométrique have been the focus of many commentaries. But the epistemological interest of these texts remains undetermined, in the context of a more general reflection on the nature of meaning, truth, and language. In this article, I show how Pascal’s reflection is confronted with a particular challenge regarding the meaning of words. This problem can be restated with the help of the concept of rule and involves our ability to assess what it means to follow a rule. I trace Pascal’s evolution in the face of this problem, adopting successively a dogmatist position, a skeptical position and finally a position which I describe as both anthropological and pragmatist. This evolution demonstrates both the continuity and discursive progress of Pascal’s reflection on human knowledge from De l’Esprit géométrique to the Pensées.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 103,388

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Analytics

Added to PP
2024-10-01

Downloads
4 (#1,822,973)

6 months
4 (#864,415)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Yoen Qian-Laurent
Sorbonne Université

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references