What is thinking reed?

Blaise Pascal, answered from the texts and cited to the page.

Blaise Pascal answers

Man is the most feeble thing in nature — a reed, bent by any wind, killed by a vapour, a drop of water — and yet he is something the universe, for all its immensity, is not: he knows.¹ The universe need not arm itself to crush him; but if it did crush him, he would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies, and the universe knows nothing of this.²

That is the image entire. The reed is not a figure of contempt; it is a figure of exact proportion. I chose it because it holds both truths at once without letting either dissolve the other. By space, the universe swallows me like an atom; by thought, I comprehend the world.³ These are not consolations — they are the precise measure of what man is: a Nothing against the Infinite, an All against the Nothing, suspended between two abysses he cannot reach from either end.⁴

Thought, then, is not one attribute among others. It constitutes the greatness of man.⁵ I cannot conceive a man without thought — he would be a stone or a brute.⁶ Strip away hands, feet, even the head if you insist on the experiment; what remains is still recognizably a man if thought remains. Remove thought, and nothing human is left. This is why all our dignity consists in thought, and why the principle of morality follows from it: let us endeavour to think well. The arithmetical machine I built at nineteen produces effects that approach nearer to thought than anything an animal does — and yet it does nothing that would permit us to attribute will to it.⁷

Thought without will is mechanism.⁸ Man's dignity is not mere computation; it is the knowing that knows itself, the awareness that stands over against the infinite and is not annihilated by it.

Sources

1. Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A vapour, a drop of water suffices to kill him.

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2. But, if the universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over him; the universe knows nothing of this.

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3. By space the universe encompasses and swallows me up like an atom; by thought I comprehend the world.

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4. For in fact what is man in nature? A Nothing in comparison with the Infinite, an All in comparison with the Nothing, a mean between nothing and everything.

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5. Thought constitutes the greatness of man.

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6. I can well conceive a man without hands, feet, head... But I cannot conceive man without thought; he would be a stone or a brute.

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7. All our dignity consists, then, in thought. By it we must elevate ourselves... Let us endeavour, then, to think well; this is the principle of morality.

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8. The arithmetical machine produces effects which approach nearer to thought than all the actions of animals. But it does nothing which would enable us to attribute will to it.

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