The power of thought has usually been a problem considered by psychology, when taking "thought" as the cause of our conduct. Here I am going to discuss "thought" in the way philosophers saw it and in particular René Descartes and Blaise Pascal - thought, not as the basis of behaviour of individuals but as a conception of a new view of the world, as an initiation of an alternative understanding of our existence. Both authors gave a great importance to thought. Blaise Pascal was in consensus with Descartes on this topic although he disagreed in many other areas. René Descartes based his philosophy on the assertion "I think therefore I exist". Pascal wrote a large number of "Thoughts" where he pays special attention to "thinking" and "thoughts" as differentiating human beings from other beings.
René Descartes proved his existence from the fact that he is thinking. How did he evaluate it? In Meditation One of "Meditations on First Philosophy" he commences doubting everything. He understands that if he wants to find "anything firm and lasting in the sciences"(1) he will have to start from the foundation of his so called "knowledge" and to base it on something that can in no way be doubted. In Meditation Two he says "Therefore I suppose that everything I see is false"(2). However, he realises that even this statement might be doubted and there might be something that is inevitably true. By logical evaluation Descartes concludes that if he has a thought - the thought that nothing is certain - then, no matter if it was instilled in him by God or if he has created it himself, then he, the one that has the thought, must be at least something. However, Descartes is still not sure and continues doubting. "... I have persuaded myself that there is absolutely nothing in the world: no sky, no earth, no minds, no bodies. Is it then the case that I too do not exist? But doubtless I did exist, if I persuaded myself of something."(3). This argument is an example of the irrefutable logic of Descartes. He has made his argument so clear that only a strong sceptic like Bertrand Russell would not be convinced in the genuineness of his conclusion and would argue that Descartes could only logically conclude that there is some thinking but not necessarily a thinker.
Once having established the fact "I am, I exist" Descartes goes on in discovering what he is. Firstly he tries to give a definition like "a man" and "a rational animal" but he realises that it is not worth doing it since it involves afterwards defining what a "man" is, what "rational" is, what an "animal" is, which will lead to an infinite number of definitions. The next thing he does is to exclude the body as a way of describing himself, to eliminate definitions like "having face, hands, arms" since the bodily characteristics do not include sensing and thinking, nor any features of the soul(4) which are closer to the essence of what he is. Now he is left with the possibilities that he is "being nourished or moving about"(5) or "one that senses" or "one that thinks". Since nourishing and moving are only possible with a body he eliminates them. The same with sensing - it requires a body to sense with. The only variant that is left is thinking. "Here I make my discovery: thought exists; it alone can not be separated from me. I am; I exist - this is certain. But for how long? For as long as I am thinking... At this time I admit nothing that is not necessarily true. I am therefore nothing but a thinking thing; that is, a mind, or intellect, or understanding, or reason... Yet I am a true thing and am truly existing; but what kind of thing? I have said already: a thinking thing"(6). With this thesis Descartes raises "thinking" to the level of proof of existence.
Blaise Pascal weighs "thought" even higher. He explains the greatness of human beings with the fact that they are thinking, realising, reasoning. He makes a comparison between a man and a reed. "Man is only a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed."(7) There is no need for the whole universe to take up arms to crush him: a vapour, a drop of water is enough to kill him. But even if the universe were to crush him, man would still be nobler than his slayer, because he knows that he is dying and the advantage the universe has over him. The universe knows none of it. Thus our dignity consists in thought. It is on thought that we must depend for our recovery, not on space and time, which we could never fill. Let us then strive to think well; that is the basic principle of morality."(8). With this Pascal defines thought as the dignity of man. He goes even further to say "Thought constitutes man's greatness"(9). However, are human beings perpetually and irrefutably great? And why is it that they are insignificant? According to Pascal a human being is neither at one moment great and at another insignificant, nor simultaneously great and insignificant, but is great in the insignificance and insignificant in the greatness. Even in his feebleness man thinks and therefore is great, and even in his greatest flight of thought there are instants of non-thinking, marked by natural instincts and therefore man is insignificant - "Instinct and reason - signs of two natures"(10). Man is in the middle between everything and nothing. From one side stands the infinitely big - the idea where the earth is just a point in the orbit of the sun, and the sun is just a point in the world, and the world is a point in the universe. From the other side lies the infinitely small - the concept, where the small worm consists of atoms, and each atom contains an endless number of worlds, each of which have sky, planets and earth, and also a small worm similar to the first. In the middle between these two abstractions is the human being realising his strange position. "Man's greatness comes from knowing he is wretched: a tree does not know it is wretched. Thus it is wretched to know that one is wretched, but there is greatness in knowing one is wretched."(11).
The human being is a "middle" not only in the ontological sense, but also in the ethical one. "He (man) is only a man when all is said, that is to say capable of little and of much, of all and nothing. He is neither angel nor beast, but man."(12) A human being should not be ignorant of human being's greatness and insignificance, nor to consider himself equal to the animals or to the angels, man has to know both sides of his nature. Using his thought man has to realise his twofold nature and its middle-ness. In this way Pascal opposes himself to two of the most powerful doctrines: to the dogmatism and stoicism (of people like Epictetus) and to the pyrrhonism and scepticism (of people like Montaigne). To the stoicism which extols the human being, he opposes man's cosmic insignificance, and to the scepticism, that emphasises the pitiful-ness of human nature, he opposes the majesty of human thought. Pascal seeks the greatness of human being in precisely this in which man is insignificant, and human being's insignificance in precisely this in which man is great.
Pascal pays special attention to the imagination as an opposition of the regular and reasonable thinking. In his search for truth Pascal rejects the imagination as something harmful for human beings. He thinks that it colours and bends reality and prevents the recognition of the truth. The imagination is not always wrong though, which causes the problem because if it invariably lied to us it would be a precise measure for truth. With its ability to make truth and falsehood look the same the imagination is a dangerous enemy of man. "Put the world's greatest philosopher on a plank that is wider than need be: if there is a precipice below, although his reason may convince him that he is safe, his imagination will prevail. Many could not even stand the thought of it without going pale and breaking into sweat. ... I should list almost all the actions of men, who hardly stir except when jolted by imagination. For reason has to yield, and at its wisest adopts those principles which human imagination has rashly introduced at every turn."(13) The role of thought is to differentiate truth from falsehood, reality from imagination. Pascal realises that if someone tried to follow only one's reason he would be considered mad by the majority of the society and also that such a case would be very rarely found since "imagination decides everything: it creates beauty, justice and happiness, which is the world's supreme good."(14)
"Thought" is not only the means for a human being to prove or realise a concept, but it is also set in human being's essence. "Man is obviously made for thinking. Therein lies his dignity and his merit; and his whole duty is to think as he ought. Now the order of thought is to begin with ourselves, and with our author and our end."(15) Pascal gives to "thought" a basic character making it a main feature of the human being and determining human being's task in life. It is a step forward into discovering the meaning of the human life. After ascertaining what man should think about, Pascal contrasts the way man is actually using his thought "about dancing, playing the lute, singing, writing verse, tilting at the ring, etc., and fighting, becoming king, without thinking what it means to be a king or to be a man"(16). Here can be felt Pascal's pessimism about how "thought" is wasted and how superficial man is, despite the fact that he is granted the greatest quality, that makes man different from everything else. In the chapter "The philosophers" Pascal says: "I can certainly imagine a man without hands, feet, or head, for it is only experience that teaches us that the head is more necessary than the feet. But I cannot imagine a man without thought; he would be a stone or an animal."(17) And later: "Thinking reed. It is not in space that I must seek my human dignity, but in the ordering of my thought. It will do me no good to own land. Through space the universe grasps me and swallows me up like a speck; through thought I grasp it."(18) "Thought" makes man extensive, urges him to come out of his small body, with the size of a point and become bigger than the whole universe. It is a tremendous power that surpasses space, surpasses material. René Descartes and Blaise Pascal agreed in one thing: that "thought" is an essential part of the human being. Both of them presuppose that truth does exist and in search for it they encounter thought as the means for finding it. Using their thought they conclude that thought itself is the base of truth. Descartes started the topic from the point where "thought" urges human being's existence and Pascal extended it to raise man above world and universe, because man possesses "thought". I think therefore I am, I am in order to think; I think that I am insignificant therefore I am insignificant, I realise that I am insignificant therefore I am great. It is in a way paradoxical: which is first the thinking or the being; the insignificance or the greatness (which reminds one of the question about the hen and the egg). "Thought" is the means and purpose of human existence, it is a power that makes man surpass the world and universe, and ignore his tiny size. "Thought" makes man rich, but still a difference should be made between reasonable thinking and imagination. "Thought" makes human beings different from everything else in the world, it makes human beings unique.
Cahn, Steven M., "Classics of Western Philosophy", 4th edition: René Descartes: Meditations On First Philosophy, Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., Indianapolis/Cambridge, (1995).
Pascal, "Pensées", Penguin Books, London, (1968).
2 Descartes, "Meditations on First Philosophy", Meditation Two, ( 24, p. 440)TOP OF PAGE
3 Descartes, "Meditations on First Philosophy", Meditation Two, ( 25, p.440)TOP OF PAGE
4 Descartes is dualist TOP OF PAGE
5 Descartes, "Meditations on First Philosophy", Meditation Two, ( 27, p. 441 TOP OF PAGE
6 Descartes, "Meditations on First Philosophy", Meditation One, ( 27, p. 441 TOP OF PAGE
7 L'homme n'est qu'un roseau, le plus faible de la nature; mais c'est un roseau pensant. (Fr.) TOP OF PAGE
8 Pascal, "Pensées", (347), p. 95 TOP OF PAGE
9 Pascal, "Pensées", (346), p. 258 TOP OF PAGE
10 Pascal, "Pensées", (344), p. 59 TOP OF PAGE
11 Pascal, "Pensées", (397), p. 59 TOP OF PAGE
12 Pascal, "Pensées", (140), p. 214 TOP OF PAGE
13 Pascal, "Pensées", (82), p. 39 TOP OF PAGE
14 Pascal, "Pensées", (82), p. 41 TOP OF PAGE
15 Pascal, "Pensées", (146), p. 235 TOP OF PAGE
16 Pascal, "Pensées", (146), p. 235 TOP OF PAGE
17 Pascal, "Pensées", (339), p. 58 TOP OF PAGE
18 Pascal, "Pensées", (348), p. 59 TOP OF PAGE