PASCAL'S COMBINATION OF MATHEMATICS, PSYCHOLOGY, AND THEOLOGY should be coming into
vogue now that we have things like Indiana University's "School of Infomatics". I came
across a very
stimulating passage in the Pensees on habit versus deliberation. The theological
application is incidental; this idea is just as important in economics:
252. For we must not misunderstand ourselves; we are as much automatic as intellectual;
and hence it comes that the instrument by which conviction is attained is not
demonstrated alone. How few things are demonstrated! Proofs only convince the mind.
Custom is the source of our strongest and most believed proofs. It bends the automaton,
which persuades the mind without its thinking about the matter. Who has demonstrated
that there will be a to-morrow and that we shall die? And what is more believed? It is,
then, custom which persuades us of it; it is custom that makes so many men Christians;
custom that makes them Turks, heathens, artisans, soldiers, etc. (Faith in baptism is
more received among Christians than among Turks.) Finally, we must have recourse to it
when once the mind has seen where the truth is, in order to quench our thirst, and steep
ourselves in that belief, which escapes us at every hour; for always to have proofs
ready is too much trouble. We must get an easier belief, which is that of custom, which,
without violence, without art, without argument, makes us believe things and inclines
all our powers to this belief, so that our soul falls naturally into it. It is not
enough to believe only by force of conviction, when the automaton is inclined to believe
the contrary. Both our parts must be made to believe, the mind by reasons which it is
sufficient to have seen once in a lifetime, and the automaton by custom, and by not
allowing it to incline to the contrary. Inclina cor meum, Deus.36 The reason acts
slowly, with so many examinations and on so many principles, which must be always
present, that at every hour it falls asleep, or wanders, through want of having all its
principles present. Feeling does not act thus; it acts in a moment, and is always ready
to act. We must then put our faith in feeling; otherwise it will be always vacillating.
This reminds me of something Nietzsche said-- something like, "Reasons? You ask me for
reasons for my opinions? I have enough trouble remembering my opinions, much less my
reasons for them."
[ http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/03.07.27b.htm ]
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