Last rites declaration of Ioannes Paulus PP. II (Karol Wojtyla)
2nd April 2005
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SECTION V: JUSTICE AND THE REASON OF EFFECTS
o SECTION VI: THE PHILOSOPHERS
o SECTION VII: MORALITY AND DOCTRINE
o SECTION VIII: THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION
o SECTION IX: PERPETUITY
o SECTION X: TYPOLOGY
o SECTION XI: THE PROPHECIES
o SECTION XII: PROOFS OF JESUS CHRIST
o SECTION XIII: THE MIRACLES
o SECTION XIV: APPENDIX: POLEMICAL FRAGMENTS
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PENSÉES
by Blaise Pascal
1660
translated by W. F. Trotter
PENSÉES
SECTION I: THOUGHTS ON MIND AND ON STYLE
1. The difference between the mathematical and the intuitive mind.--In the
one, the principles are palpable, but removed from ordinary use; so that for
want of habit it is difficult to turn one's mind in that direction: but if
one turns it thither ever so little, one sees the principles fully, and one
must have a quite inaccurate mind who reasons wrongly from principles so
plain that it is almost impossible they should escape notice.
But in the intuitive mind the principles are found in common use and are
before the eyes of everybody. One has only to look, and no effort is
necessary; it is only a question of good eyesight, but it must be good, for
the principles are so subtle and so numerous that it is almost impossible
but that some escape notice. Now the omission of one principle leads to
error; thus one must have very clear sight to see all the principles and, in
the next place, an accurate mind not to draw false deductions from known
principles.
All mathematicians would then be intuitive if they had clear sight, for they
do not reason incorrectly from principles known to them; and intuitive minds
would be m