Abstract
The contradictions of thought of René Descartes and Blaise Pascal, although not very explicitly expressed in their time, are considered to be a kind of "reason and heart" controversy. The attempt to relativize these pigeonholing categories brings us to the starting point common to both Descartes' Meditationes de prima philosophia and Pascal's Pensées: to the act of skepticism and radical doubt.
Despite the difference in their skeptical way and its aim, the roots of both thought "systems" grow out of this act. This paper will attempt to outline how the role of doubt can shape the problem of human knowledge in general, and the ultimate knowledge, the knowledge of the Divine existence, in particular.