Abstract

The author defends the thesis that Pascal’s use of sentir offers an important entrance to his perception of the human being, while explaining Pascal’s anthropology as an experience-oriented and love-focused understanding of human existence. This understanding of Pascal is based on the reconstruction of an alternative context of interpretation. Not the early modern debates on rationality, but the medieval authors that inspired Port-Royal is taken as the main reference. Reading Pascal’s texts from the use of sentire by Bernard of Clairvaux, Bonaventure and Duns Scotus, offers a different perspective on the relation between body, will and knowledge in his thought. This alternative interpretation leads to a re-orientation on the relevance of his thought for actual debates on modernity.