Like Blaise Pascal, Pierre Bayle was a fideist who had little confidence in mankind’s search for knowledge of any kind and thus saw such shortcomings as indicative of the need for faith. While Pascal came from the Catholic tradition, however, Bayle came from a Calvinist background. While Bayle’s name is hardly of celebrity status today, it is important to understand that Bayle was perhaps the most widely read author throughout all of Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. This post will address the conflict which he sought to establish between religious faith and philosophical reasoning. (more…)
