PASCAL: IL ‘MIRACOLO’ E I ‘MIRACOLI’ = PASCAL: “MIRACLE” AND “MIRACLES”

Even if critics have rarely paid due attention to it, the theme of the miracle is particularly present in Blaise Pascal’s thought. This paper aims to render Pascal’s entire discussion of the miracle issue, considering his whole production and not only fundamental works such as Pensées [Thoughts] or Lettres provinciales [The provincial letters]. This approach highlights a very rich and articulated theory, which exceeds the apologetic logic alone. As the experimental thinker he was, Pascal started from a concrete miracle-event (the miracle of the Holy Thorn), of which he was a direct witness and of which he sought confirmation. His entire analysis of the miracle as an object of faith is based on this, a faith that however, in this singular way, offers the ‘proofs’ of itself. Believers will not believe thanks to miracles; however, miracles speak to that ‘reason of the heart’ which feels, intuits, grasps, and sees what is usually not visible.