Pascal and Wittgenstein : common epistemological elements in the Pensées and On certainty.

Abstract

The guiding intuition behind this disquisition is that Blaise Pascal and Ludwig Wittgenstein are similar philosophers with similar philosophies. This intuition is not argued in its entirety here. Instead, the author seeks to establish a limited version of this intuition as his thesis; viz., that Wittgenstein and Pascal share six elements of their theories of knowledge. The author executes a demonstration of this thesis by contrasting Wittgenstein's epistemology with G. E. Moore's and contrasting Pascal's epistemology with Rene Descartes'. By showing that Wittgenstein's epistemology contrasts with G. E. Moore's in the same way that Pascal's epistemology contrasts with Descartes', the author is able to conclude that Wittgenstein's theory of knowledge is indeed similar to Pascal's with respect to the six elements mentioned above.