AOS
Early Modern Philosophy.
AOC
Late Modern Philosophy, Marx and Marxism, Social/Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion.
Publication
“Cracked Foundations: Pascal’s Internal Critique of Descartes’s Theory of Knowledge.” Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy (forthcoming).
Abstract: In the Pensées, Pascal famously criticizes Descartes as “useless and uncertain” (S445/L887). Further, he claims that even if the Cartesian philosophy were certain it would not be “worth an hour of labor” (S118/L84) and sets out to “write against those who delve too deeply in the sciences. Descartes” (S462/L553). Some have concluded from such remarks that Pascal dismissed Descartes’s philosophy primarily on the grounds that it was useless, and that its uselessness lies in the fact that it does not aid our salvation. In this paper, I argue that such a reading does not accurately capture the full scope of Pascal’s engagement with Descartes’s epistemology. First, I argue that Pascal does take Descartes’s epistemology seriously on its own terms and shows that it fails to secure the certain knowledge it seeks. Second, I show that Pascal develops an alternative epistemology to Descartes’s, one that he sees as remedying its inability to acquire certain knowledge by locating the source of such knowledge not in reason but in the heart. Third, I show that Pascal thought adopting his epistemology led to the cultivation of a truly Christian life and thus brought one closer to salvation. Accordingly, Pascal would have regarded his own epistemology, unlike Descartes’s, as certain and useful: certain because it can acquire certain knowledge, and useful because it leads one closer to salvation. Finally, I suggest that Pascal was not as dismissive of philosophizing as is often assumed. He criticizes forms of philosophizing such as Descartes’s that place reason at their center, yet remains open to a kind of philosophizing grounded instead in the heart and its feelings, for this kind of philosophizing does aid our salvation.
Talks
“Necessaria Sunt Motiva Credibilitatis: Leibniz on Motives of Credibility and the Rationality of Faith.” Princeton Project in Philosophy and Religion Working Group, October 2025
“Leibniz on Faith and Reason.” Forum Descartes, Utrecht University, January 2025
“Leibniz on Faith and Reason.” Princeton Project in Philosophy and Religion Working Group, September 2024
“Pascal’s Internal Critique of Cartesian Epistemology.” Scottish Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, University of St Andrews, May 2024
“Marx’s Moral Critique of Capitalism.” Philosophical Society of Princeton, March 2023
“Nietzsche on Suffering as a ‘Medicine for Pessimists.’” Nietzsche in the Northeast, October 2023
“Nietzsche on Suffering as a ‘Medicine for Pessimists.’” Philosophical Society of Princeton, December 2022
Comments
Roundtable Participant on Mogens Lærke, Spinoza and the Freedom of Philosophizing (2021). Freedom and Obligation in the Seventeenth Century, Princeton University, March 2025
Comments on Kristen Irwin, “Varieties of Illumination in Bayle and Leibniz.” Reason and Revelation in 17th Century Philosophy Conference, October 2024
Comments on Mattia Mantovani, “The Institution of Nature: Descartes on Human and Animal Perception.” Forum Descartes, January 2024
Service
Conference Organizer, “Reason and Revelation in 17th Century Philosophy,” Princeton University.
Organized an international conference bringing together scholars to examine the relationship between theology and philosophy in the seventeenth century.
Organizer, Compass Undergraduate Workshop in Philosophy, Princeton University.
Coordinated programming designed to support undergraduates – particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds – interested in advanced philosophical study and graduate education.