K existenciálnej antropológii Blaisa Pascala a Sørena Kierkegaarda

• Authors: Milan Petkanič

Title variants

EN

On the existential anthropology of Blaise Pascal and Søren Kierkegaard

• Languages of publication: SK

Abstracts

EN

In a state of existential anguish, Blaise Pascal asked himself a fundamental question: “What is man in infinity?” He tried to answer this question in his unfinished reflections, collected in Thoughts. The conspicuous existential features of Pascal’s anthropology, as well as the deeply personal and passionately religious character of his thought, call for a comparison with the two centuries younger, polemical Danish religious thinker and “founding father” of existential philosophy, Søren Kierkegaard. In my article, I will try to explain the affinity of these thinkers to each other and point out several parallels in their ideas, focusing especially on those fundamental moments in which this affinity is particularly reflected and which, at the same time, underline the existential dimension of their anthropology: the paradox of existence, the concept of distraction as a phenomenon of existential escapism, and the existential situation of choice/wager. Although this article is primarily aimed at revealing the common intersections between the two thinkers, I will conclude it by also highlighting the point where their thinking diverges most markedly: their different understanding of the relationship between faith and reason, where, in the direction of fideism, Kierkegaard shows himself to be a far more radical thinker than Pascal.

Keywords

EN

Blaise Pascal; Søren Kierkegaard; the paradox of existence; distraction as existential escapism; choice and wager; faith and the limits of reason

Discipline

• PHILOSOPHY: PHILOSOPHY

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Filosofický časopis (Philosophical Journal)
• Year: 2024
• Volume: 72
• Issue: Mimoradne_cislo_3
• Pages: 38-55
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Milan Petkanič

• Filosofický časopis, redakce, Filosofický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i., Jilská 1, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic