Pascal On the Uncertainty of Descartes

     "I think, therefore I am" is a very powerful quote by Descartes. With his discourse on method and  meditations on first philosophy, he explored a new way of thinking about reality. Some people took him as a genius for his work while some others, such as Pascal, think Descartes' work is useless and uncertain.

     In his book called "Thoughts", Pascal quotes that Descartes' work is "useless and uncertain" (Pensée 887). Yes, it could be said that there are some flaws in Descartes's work. In the beginning of his meditations, he says he'll flush everything currently on his mind and only accept the things that he could be one hundred percent sure of. So, he starts with believing his self existence because he is able to think about it. As he continues, he says everything we know comes from our senses, and senses could deceive us. Therefore, one hundred percent true information could not be gathered by the senses. However, as he progresses through his meditations, he finds that some information from his senses could be trusted, which refutes his ideas at the beginning. This might be one of the reasons why Pascal calls Descartes' work as useless because Descartes sort of conflicts with his own idea.

     Also, starting with the third meditation, Descartes starts doubting the reality of mathematics and thinks that the simplest mathematical facts may have been made deceptive by God. However, while thinking about these mathematical facts, he has no sufficient information to prove God exists. He starts thinking about God and links the reality with the existence of God. Yet, a few paragraphs later he concludes the idea of God may have originated from his mind. If God is a creation of Descartes' mind, then how could he link God with the reality? Pascal reflects on Descartes' relationship with god with this quote: "I cannot pardon Descartes; he would have liked, in all of his philosophy, to do without God; but he couldn’t prevent himself from giving him a flick to put the world in motion; after that, he no longer has anything to do with God." (Pensée 887). It could be said that Pascal is accurate with this idea because Descartes says that he "could not acquire all the remaining perfections of God."(Descartes, 77) therefore, he is not one hundred percent sure about the existence of God.

     To conclude, Pascal believes that Descartes' work is useless because of its imperfections. At the end, Descartes' meditations are not beneficial to Pascal's philosophy because of the duality of Descartes' nature. On one side he believes in God, on the other he is not sure whether he exists or he is an idea in the mind.