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Pascal and the Therapy of Faith

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PASCAL AND THE THERAPY OF FAITH Christopher William Robbins Doctor of Philosophy University of York Philosophy July 2015 2 3 ABSTRACT This study of Pascal’s Pensées focuses on a central aspect of Pascal’s project: the application of philosophical therapy to humanist agnostics to instil and sustain Christian belief in them. I identify four therapeutic phases: Pascal says we fear suffering after death, so it is in our interest to investigate the Christian message. However his account of the afterlife does not satisfactorily show in what way persons can live on after death and will not infallibly engage our interest in avoiding Hell or enjoying Heaven. Pascal contends that earthly life is futile and that the Christian doctrine of the Fall is the best explanation of the human predicament, an explanation which points us towards dependence on God for the meaning of life. Yet even if we accept Pascal’s pessimistic estimate of human life, he does not successfully show that Christianity provides the best explanation of it. Pascal argues that there is no purely human morality because the philosophers’ successive attempts to show how to achieve peace of mind in the moral life have failed to find an objective basis for a truly altruistic ethic: only Christianity can do this. But this risks conflict between Christian and other ideals. We seek the tranquillity of faith yet Pascal rejects philosophical proofs of God’s existence: God is hidden; thoughtful aspirants to faith must rely on only suggestive evidence for the truth of Christianity. Habituation can reinforce one’s determination to become a Christian but – because faith is God’s gift – we can never be sure we have it: ultimately there is no peace of mind to be had. The Epilogue compares Pascal’s conception of religious belief with that of the Wittgensteinians: while Pascal embraces descriptive religious assertions, the Wittgensteinians discard them to protect Christianity from positivist attack. 4 5 CONTENTS ABSTRACT 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 9 DECLARATION 10 FOREWORD 11 CHRONOLOGY OF THE WRITINGS OF PASCAL 13 INTRODUCTION: PASCAL’S LIFE AND FINAL PROJECT 17 1. Life 18 2. Pascal and Jansenism 19 3. The Project 24 4. Method: the phases of the therapy 32 CHAPTER I: THE INTELLECTUAL CONTEXT OF THE PENSÉES 39 5. Augustinian Catholicism 39 6. Christian humanism: the Jesuits 45 7. Montaigne: Christian scepticism 46 8. Montaigne’s influence on humanist moralists 49 8.1 The Stoics 50 8.2 Pyrrhonian Ethics 52 8.3 Honnêtes Hommes: secular moralists 53 8.4 Honnêtes Hommes: rationalists 56 8.5 Epicureans 57 9. Descartes 60 9.1 Faith and Reason 60 9.2 Pascal as a semi-Cartesian 64 CHAPTER II: IS IT IRRATIONAL TO IGNORE CHRISTIANITY? 69 10. Persuading humanist agnostics to investigate religion 69 10.1 Preliminaries 69 6 10.2 The Argument’s Assumptions 71 11. Is there a risk we shall survive bodily death? 72 12. The permanence of the post mortem state 80 13. Is our rational self-interest at stake in the afterlife? 80 14. The risks of annihilation and suffering 83 15. Would the prospect of Eternal Happiness motivate the pursuit of virtue? 84 16. Should the prospect of the afterlife change my life now? 92 CHAPTER III: THE FALLIBILITY, FUTILITY AND ABSURDITY OF HUMAN LIFE 17. The problems of our predicament: unhappiness and evasion 96 18. Error 97 19. Restlessness: seeking a remedy in Diversion 101 20. Futility and Fragility 105 21. Absurdity 110 22. The Mechanics of Error and Futile Activity 111 22.1 Desire and Belief 111 22.2 The Hedonic Treadmill 112 22.3 Selectivity of Attention 115 22.4 Self-Deception 115 22.5 Avoidance of the Present 118 22.6 Fixation of Belief 119 23. Only Christian doctrine explains our ethical incapacity 121 23.1 Pascal’s theological explanation 122 23.2 The incoherence of the doctrine of the Fall 124 24. The Demand for the Meaning of Life 126 CHAPTER IV: DO WE NEED CHRISTIAN MORALITY TO ACHIEVE TRANQUILLITY? 25. The failure of secular moralists to achieve eudaimonia and to cure egoism 129 26. The failure of secular moralists to find an objective basis for morality 137 27. The Christian God’s Moral Commands: defeating egoism 140 7 28. The ‘Three Orders’: the fragmentation of the Christian’s system of value 145 29. Revaluation, submission and peace of mind 151 CHAPTER V: EVIDENCE AND PROOF: HOW CAN WE BE CERTAIN WE HAVE FAITH? 157 30. Pascal’s doctrine of the Hidden God 158 31. Observing ‘simple’ believers: the nature of their faith 165 32. ‘Deliberative’ believers and Pascal’s ‘proofs’ 169 33. The experience of faith: is it easier for another person to tell if I have faith than it is for me? 183 34. Habituation: is it enough to produce salvific faith? 189 EPILOGUE: PASCAL AND THE WITTGENSTEINIANS 197 35. The Wittgensteinians as ‘heirs’ of Pascal’s approach to religion 197 35.1. Reasoning and Commitment 198 35.2. Praxis 199 35.3. Can an ‘outsider’ understand Christian faith? 202 36. The challenge from Montaigne’s rationalist sceptic 207 37. The deists and their proofs 215 38. The proto-empiricist’s challenge: evidence 217 39. The proto-empiricist’s challenge: metaphysics 223 40. The revisionist historian’s challenge 225 41. The challenge of humanist ethics 233 42. Conclusion 238 APPENDICES I: Interpreting the Pensées 243 II: The Irony of Pascal’s Wager 253 III: Major Pascal studies since c. 1950 261 BIBLIOGRAPHY 271 8 9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I gladly express my thanks to Professors Catherine Wilson and Tom Stoneham for their careful and invariably helpful suggestions for the improvement of this thesis. I take full responsibility for any remaining errors and for any intentional or unintentional humour. 10 DECLARATION I certify that this thesis is all my own work, with no collaborator, and that none of the material it contains has been submitted for any other academic award. During the writing of this thesis I have published a short review of which the details are as follows: Robbins, Christopher: ‘Book Review: G. Hunter: Pascal the Philosopher: An Introduction’, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 22.1 (2014), pp 181-3. 11 FOREWORD Details of all publications cited more than once in the text are given in the Bibliography which also shows the abbreviations used in the text for them. I refer in the text to the Pensées using first the numbering of Lafuma as it appears in the Œuvres Complètes (Éditions du Seuil, 1963) and secondly that of Sellier as it appears in the Livre de Poche edition of Gérard Ferreyrolles. These two numberings are used in the English translations made by Krailsheimer (Penguin) and Ariew (Hackett) respectively. Hence ‘(86:120)’ refers the reader to pensée no. 86 in the Lafuma/Krailsheimer versions and to the same pensée, as no. 120, in the Sellier- Ferreyrolles /Ariew versions. The most recent edition of Pascal’s Œuvres Complètes is by Michel Le Guern (Pléiade, 2 vols.: 1998 & 2000); there is no English translation of the Pensées following his numbering so I do not use it. I frequently refer to other works by Pascal (and specific pages of the Pensées) as they appear in the Le Guern edition: thus ‘(OCG II 478)’ refers to page 478 of Volume 2 of the Le Guern edition of the Œuvres Complètes. 12 13 CHRONOLOGY OF PASCAL’S WRITINGS MENTIONED IN THIS STUDY1 1623 Born in Clermont to Étienne Pascal and Antoinette Begon (dies 1626) 1647 Récit des deux conférences condemning the rational theology of a harmless and probably mildly mad priest, Saint-Ange, who had claimed he could provide rational proofs for many Christian doctrines, for example the Trinity Expériences nouvelles touchant le vide which argues that the traditional doctrine of the horror vacui cannot explain the behaviour of liquids in vertical tubes and other vessels. Correspondence with a Jesuit scholar, Père Noël, defending the hypothesis of the void. 1648 Letter to his sister Gilberte about his talk with Antoine de Rebours, a Jansenist priest and a member of Mersenne’s circle. He says that he believes he can show that Christian belief does not contradict common sense. But he gets no encouragement from Rebours. Letter to Le Pailleur commenting on the controversy with Noël. Récit de la grande expérience de l’équilibre des liqueurs, report of the Puy-de-Dôme experiment suggesting that the weight of the air varies according to altitude. 1651 Préface sur le traité du vide Letter to Florin & Gilberte Périer on the death of Étienne Pascal 1651 [or later] Traité de la pesanteur de la masse de l’air 1 Dating of works not issued in Pascal’s lifetime is conjectural. I have drawn on the suggestions of OCM, OCG and Mesnard 1976 in compiling this chronology. 14 1652 Letter to Queen Christina of Sweden presenting his arithmetical machine 1653-4 Early Pensées reflecting conversations with several honnêtes hommes, friends of the Duc de Roannez. 1654 Correspondence with Fermat on the principles of probability. Mémorial recording a spiritual experience during which he decides to devote himself to the Christian faith and to renounce the world. 1655 Entretien de M. Pascal avec M. de Sacy sur Epictète et Montaigne 1655 [or later] Pensée entitled Infini – Rien (the ‘Wager fragment’: 418:680) De l’esprit géométrique (includes De l’art de persuader) Comparaison des chrétiens des premiers temps avec ceux d’aujourd’hui 1656 Letters to Mlle Roannez Pensées on miracles (830-912:419-451) drafted following the Miracle of the Holy Thorn. 1656[-7] Écrits sur la grâce 1656-9 Lettres Provinciales and other tracts in which he argues (a) that the believer’s salvation is exclusively the result of God’s grace, and (b) that Jesuit moralists have debased Christian morality by using casuistry to excuse the misdeeds of their powerful patrons.
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