Abstract

The thought of Montaigne and Pascal on political order holds considerable interest for current debates over theories of justice and the deconstruction of justice. This particularly holds true when the focus shifts toward the experience of the political, toward a phenomenology of the political order in which appearance is the central category. The Essais and the Pensées offer two strategies for educating readers with respect to appearance qua essence of the political order. In both, political order is demystified through a well-known critique of natural law. Order is then rehabilitated in the name of true justice. This paper attempts to define and contrast the moral and religious significance of this rehabilitation in the philosophies of Montaigne and Pascal.