Van ego naar mens

Blaise Pascal is often depicted as the melancholic misanthrope with his particularly pessimistic view of man. Through his Thoughts, Pascal indeed describes man as a chaotic and contradictory creature, doomed to an insurmountable state of misery. Inspired by his Jansenist background, Pascal interprets the human misère as a consequence of the Fall: due to Adam, humanity is entirely depraved. The only greatness left to man corresponds to the thought of his miserable condition. However, every human hides that thought behind an illusory ego. In this paper, we will delve deeper into Pascals distinction between the ego and the human being. We intend to show that Pascal's bitter descriptions of man hide a message of equality and relatedness.