LA CONNAISSANCE CLAIRE-OBSCURE DE DIEU CHEZ PASCAL
PASCAL’S CLARE-OBSCURE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

Summary/Abstract: Pascal’s Clare-Obscure Knowledge of God. In Pascal’s view, the presence of the divine is antonymic, being echoed by its absence. God’s withdrawal leaves “traces” and these traces, reference points in cognitive efforts are the only ones which give access to knowledge. Man is compelled to search for signs of the divine and adhere to a hermeneutics of an absent presence. Instead of a direct, analytic Cartesian knowledge, Pascal develops an indirect, clare-obscure knowledge, an indefinite hermeneutics of the theological infinity. This theoretical approach is mainly based upon the necessity of assuming the absolute transcendence of the theological infinity. The criterion which differentiates the knowledge of the divine truths from the knowledge of the human truths is the precedence of love. Only when love precedes in an a priori way the cognitive act, the object of knowledge is represented by the divine truths. Moreover, only by assuming the presence of a Mediator is man able to have a true experience of the transcendence of the Divine.

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