Deceiving oneself into faith?

Abstract

Abstract “Follow the way by which they began; by acting as if they believed, taking the holy water, having masses said, etc.” The well-known lines from Pascal’s much-discussed fragment “infini rien” have been much commented on. In this context, the keyword self-deception comes up surprisingly often, partly as a criticism of Pascal’s presumed strategy, partly in an attempt to make these lines fruitful for the current discussion on self-deception. I remind the latter attempts to consider an important condition for the success of the “regimen”, which becomes clear when one reflects on the internal characterisation of Pascal’s interlocutor. For if we take into account the kind of self-knowledge we must ascribe to her, we cannot regard her as someone whom acting-as-if naturally leads to faith, but as someone who has already been touched by the grace of God.