Pascal on entertainment

Abstract

The paper analyzes Blaise Pascal’s critique of entertainment and amusement, focusing particularly on the conception of human existence that forms the foundation of his critique. First, it will explore how Pascal describes the process and nature of amusement as well as the existential structure that underlies these activities. Secondly, the paper will address the special status that Pascal assigns to death. In conclusion, it will be argued that Pascal denies the meaningfulness of any human activity because he believes that human beings are fundamentally incapable of achieving this-wordly happiness. According to Pascal, every action serves to distract us from the inherent poverty of human existence which becomes evident in moments of inactivity. Therefore, his critique of amusment is overly broad since it can be applied to any form of activity and remains exagerrated even if some his critical points a valid.