An almost 400 years old idea of Pascal: les raisons du coeur

Abstract

My paper departs from an important assertion of Pascal about the relationship between feelings and knowledge that he inserted in his writing on the Art of persuasion. I show the paradigmatic novelty of this assertion in relation to the earlier and contemporary philosophical approaches to this issue, and how motivating it proved to be for later philosophers and even cognitive scientist. I exemplify this by way of quoting and analyzing Scheler, Heidegger, and Damasio. However, I also have to show that in the hands of the scientist, the thesis that is a novelty urging the reader to reflection becomes deprived of its specific character and even content.