“Our soul is cast into a body, where it finds number, time, dimension. Thereupon it reasons, and calls this nature necessity, and can believe nothing else.”
- June 19, 1623 – August 19, 1662
- French
- Mathematician, Physicist, Inventor, Philosopher, Theologian
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Quote
“Our soul is cast into a body, where it finds number, time, dimension. Thereupon it reasons, and calls this nature necessity, and can believe nothing else.”
Explanation
Pascal explores the human condition as a fusion of spirit and matter, suggesting that the soul, once united with the body, becomes bound by the physical realities of number, time, and dimension. These concepts—fundamental to the physical world—shape how we think and reason. As a result, we come to treat these constraints as absolute and inevitable, calling them “necessity” and accepting them as the only possible truth. Our spiritual perspective is thus confined by the material frame in which it operates.
This idea emerges from Pascal’s broader reflections in Pensées on the limits of human knowledge and the tension between the visible and the invisible. As both a scientist and a theologian, Pascal was acutely aware of the power of mathematics and physics, but he also saw how this worldview can narrow the soul’s awareness of the transcendent. He believed that while the human mind depends on categories like space and time, ultimate truth—especially divine truth—lies beyond them, and cannot be fully grasped by reasoning rooted in material experience.
In contemporary thought, Pascal’s insight resonates with discussions in philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and even quantum physics, where the nature of reality appears to defy our conventional categories. His quote challenges us to recognize that our reasoning is shaped—and limited—by our embodied experience, and that faith, imagination, or humility may be necessary to reach beyond the visible frame. It’s a reminder that what we call “natural” may reflect not objective reality, but the boundaries of our own perception.
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