Every philosopher could be wrong

One of the most puzzling quotes from Pascal’s Pensées is the essence of this title; every philosopher could be wrong. How can this be? Is there no truth to be found? And if there is, is it impossible to know?

This idea must have risen as a result of religion and men’s nature.

Men’s nature refers in this context to it’s capability of knowledge, the ability of knowing. Our resources are what we experience, either by our senses or in our mind. Our tools for construction of knowledge, leading to the construction of reality are the processing of our experiences with:

• the meaning of words,
• our separating mind,
• our intuïtion or common sense
• our feelings about things

All philosophers could be wrong as a result of the nature of the themes they try to relate and understand. Morality as an example cannot be observed, only experienced from within. This raises questions:

• What causes the experience of something being better or worse than the other? And with it, our capability of judgement? Does it have a source?
• What is right or wrong? Is there an absolute right or wrong in any given situation?
• Where do the options for right and wrong come from? What is the source?
• When we choose and act accordingly any choosen option, what is the ultimate source of our preference?

Given the similarity of many philosophical themes as ‘invisibile human experiences which appear as real as anything we observe’, how do we verify our intellectual explanation for these experiences other than by our own experience from within?

This is where religion -as the only alternative- enters the stage. Any religion answers from outside our experience, and thus knowledge. Their answer as such cannot be verified, only believed. With regard to morality and Christianity, the answers to the four questions are something like:

• The experience of judgement is a result of man being created in God’s image
• The experience of right and wrong is the result of man eating from the fruit in paradise. Being part of right and wrong -instead of just observation- is the result of our continuous acting against God’s will.
• Right is to believe and follow Jesus Christ, to act according the ten commandments. The source for our options are either God’s spirit, or the deceiving and misleading spirit of the fallen angels, Satan.
• The ultimate source for our preference is either the inspiration and spirit of God, or the deceiving and misleading spirit of Satan.

Obviously, there is no way we can reach this information, other than by a source outside our mind. We cannot verify this information, only the credibility of the information giver.

But if it is true, this is how I understand that any philosopher can be wrong; as a result of our limited experiences (and thus conclusions), compared to the reality of a much bigger world.