Sulla epistemologia di Pascal. Note a margine della Lettera al Padre Nöel.

In his 1647 letter to Father Noël, Blaise Pascal briefly sets out his critical theory of scientific knowledge in general. Our article analyzes this letter and relates it to the other places in Pascal's works where his critical theory is developed and applied. There are two major points of emphasis in that theory. The first one is the superiority that Pascal recognizes to "geometry" over "logic": a superiority that consists in the clarification that "geometric" type knowledge makes of its conceptual apparatus and in the explicit use of the apagogical method. The second one is the ante litteram falsificationist approach that Pascal reserves for knowledge that does not enjoy apagogical status. Also relevant is the consideration that apagogical demonstration normally introduces truths that contain a mystery, to the deepening of which the esprit de géometrie is no longer suited, but rather the esprit de finesse.