Blaise Pascals and Michel de Montaignes

Concept of Diversion: A Comparative Study

_________________________________________

A Bachelors Thesis
Submitted to
San Carlos Seminary College
Faculty of Philosophy
John Paul II Avenue., Luz, Cebu City
_________________________________________

A Requirement for the

Degree of Bachelor of Arts,
Major in Philosophy
_________________________________________

Sem. Wilson Aringoy Jerusalem

March 2015

APPROVAL SHEET

This thesis entitled:

Blaise Pascals and Michel de Montaignes Concept of

Diversion: A Comparative Study

Prepared

and

JERUSALEM

submitted

by

SEM.

WILSON

ARINGOY

has been approved and accepted as partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of

BACHELOR OF ARTS

MAJOR IN PHILOSOPHY.

PANEL OF EXAMINERS
Approved by the Committee on Oral Examination with a grade of 1.6
on Feb. 28, 2015.
Msgr. Joseph C. Tan
Chairman
Rev. Fr. Brian C. Brigoli

Rev. Fr. Philip D.

Pepito
Panel Member

Panel Member
Msgr. Joseph C. Tan
Dean of Studies
Faculty of Philosophy

Acknowledgement
This research would not have been possible without the
assiduous help of those who have contributed to its accomplishment. It
is my delight to recall all of them who journeyed with me since the
start. At first, I found it hard to consider what topic to write. Yet,
because of them, this venture has been realized. For that reason, it
indeed deserves mentioning them.

For my parents, Felicisima and Eugenio Jerusalem, who

have tirelessly reminded me to always move forward despite the many
challenges in life and for my siblings who are always ready to listen to
my needs, material and spiritual.

For my benefactors,

Saint Gabriel the Archangel

Parish and Mayor Marilyn S. Wenceslao, who have supported me

financially in the seminary for almost five years at present.

For the Class of Escobas:

Gio

Abastillas;

Creighton Guiseppe Cabuguas; Mychael Phylip Catingub; Jomar Delos

Santos; Neil Harvey Gador; Jaime Jr. Hermita; Darren Christian Ray
Langit; Harvey Vincent Lariego; Xavier Anthony Lepiten; Noel Menoso;
Junrey Oropeza; Danilo Rabe Jr.; Roliecris Sitsit; Melquiades Dicdican;
Chayle Sawey; and Kyle Aquino.

For Rev. Fr. Brian C. Brigoli, my adviser of this

research, who has patiently guided me to write this research properly.

For Rev. Fr. Avelito John M. Burgos,

who

has accompanied us, seminarians, listening to our concerns to be able

to come up with a good research.

For Sir Hezron Cartagena, who likewise made a

lot of suggestions during the proposal of this research in order to make
this a very comprehensive one.

For Mrs. Vicenta I. Lipardo,

the seminary

librarian, who helped me find the primary books of Blaise Pascal and
Michel de Montaigne about diversion.

For my household:

Sem. Logarta, Niel Joshua; Sem.

Romero, Cerilo; and Sem. Jaducana, Dan Ian Nio.

And most importantly to the Almighty

God, who has given me good health and strength amidst hardships
in life to be able to persevere in this vocation to the priesthood.

Wilson Aringoy Jerusalem

Researc
her
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 The Problem and Its Scope

1.1.

Introduction

1.2.

1
Statement of the Problem

1.3.

6
Significance of the Study

1.4.

6
Scope and Limitation

7
1.5.

Theoretical Framework

8
1.6.

Research Methodology

12
1.7. Organization of the Study
1.8.

12
Definition of Terms

13
1.9. Review of Related Literature
15

Chapter 2 LIFE, WORKS AND INFLUENCES

2.1. Michel de Montaigne
2.1.1. Life
18
2.1.2. Works
19
2.1.3. Influences
20
2.2. Blaise Pascal
2.2.1. Life
22

2.2.2. Works
24
2.2.3. Influences
26

Chapter 3 Blaise Pascals Concepts of Diversion

3.1. Reasons of Diversion
3.1.1. Death
27
3.1.2. Wretchedness
28
3.1.3. Secret Instincts
29
3.1.4. Feeble and Mortal Condition
30
3.2. The Mind in relation to Diversion
30
3.3. Results of Diversion
3.3.1. Feeble Happiness
31
3.3.2. Greatest Misery
32
3.3.3. Unhappiness
33
3.3.4. Idle Amusement
34

Chapter 4 Michel de Montaignes Concepts of

Diversion

4.1. Reasons of Diversion

4.1.1. Death
36
4.1.2. Vehement Displeasure
37
4.1.3. A Little Thing
38
4.2. The Mind in relation to Diversion
39
4.3. Results of Diversion
4.3.1. Not-Gone-to-the- Root Consolation
39
4.3.2. Deception
40
4.3.3. Overcome Revenge
41

Chapter 5 Comparison of Pascals and Montaignes

Concept of
Diversion
5.1. Convergences
5.1.1. Wretchedness
43
5.1.2. Feeble Happiness
44
5.2. Divergences
5.2.1. Telos of Diversion
44

5.2.2. Death
45
5.2.3. Mind
46

Chapter 6 Summary, Conclusion and

Recommendation
6.1. Summary
47
6.2. Conclusion
50
6.3. Recommendations
55

BIBLIOGRAPHY
57
CURRICULUM VITAE
59

My children, you are

not created to be fat
little ducks waddling in

the mud, but you are

created as eagles
destined to rise above.
- Msgr. Aloysius
Schwartz-

CHAPTER 1
THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE

1.1.

Introduction
Everyone in life has problems.1 We all receive challenges and

lessons to learn.2 How you cope is the true test of what kind of person
you are.3 Most of us, if not all, try to cope with a number of challenges
with activities that would divert our minds from them. This is what the
two philosophers, Blaise Pascal and Michel de Montaigne, called a
diversion.
Our experiences manifest to us that we resort to diversion right
away when we are confronted with disquieting stuf4. We have a lot of
choices to take just to divert ourselves from this disquieting stuff. That
means, we have distinctive approaches with regard to diversion. With
these distinctive approaches, it is for that reason indispensable to

1 Evelyn Robert Brooks, Forget Your Troubles (Evelyn Robert Brooks, 2009),
11.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Disquieting stuff refer to all material things, words, and even actions that
cause a feeling of anxiety or uneasiness to an individual.

study the works of Pascal and Montaigne in order to come up with

supplemental information as to what diversion really is all about.

Postmodern people are perpetually restless; they frequently seek

solace in diversion instead of satisfaction in truth. 5 It is an irrefutable
fact that all of us, whether we like it or not, cannot evade from a
number of disquieting stuff in the world we live in. That is why we
naturally divert our attention from our recent concerns so as to make
our lives at ease as feasible. True enough, we do not want to make our
lives burdensome. Nobody wants pain. Our body immediately reacts to
whatever it receives. With that, our natural impulses cause us to divert.
Diversion seems to have been programmed already in us that we
naturally resort to it even without thinking about it.
There are several sorts of disquieting stuff. To name a few, we
have a feeling of rejection from a community, family, classroom, past
memories, death of loved ones, being heartbroken, and even wanting
different gadgets that are unaffordable, are some of these sorts that
can really affect us. With this, the roots of diversion seem to be the
disquieting stuff.
5 Justin Taylor, Pascal on our Addiction to Distraction, TGC | The Gospel
Coalition Blog, July 8, 2010, accessed November 2, 2014,
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2010/07/08/pascal-on-ouraddiction-to-distraction/.

Well, we cannot rebuff the fact that we really need happiness.

Thus, whatsoever occurs, most of us really hunt for ways of
overcoming this disquieting stuff. That is to say, we resort into
diversion. We conceive of something but do something different in
order to be diverted from our present views and activities.
Everyone is prey to distractedness, to seeing solace in activity as an
escape from experiencing ourselves.6 In fact, this is one of the major
obstacles to a meaningful life. 7 Man does not exist merely for his own
sake. He lives also for others. He is destined to live in a community.
Hence, this maxim, no man is an island, is always reiterated. And so,
it is an out-and-out fact that we can surely face a lot of disquieting
stuff even from our peers. However, as rational beings, we are given an
intellect to decide what to take and do. We are given reason to divert
us from something that ails us. This is what we call a diversion. Yet,
what really is diversion? In this study, we will be introduced to the
teachings of Blaise Pascals and Michel de Montaignes concept of
diversion in order for us to become cognizant of diversion.

6 Bodhipaksa, Blaise Pascal: All of mans misfortune comes from one thing,
which is not knowing how to sit quietly in a room, Wildwind Buddhist
Meditation Blog, October 25, 2008, accessed November 2, 2014,
http://www.wildmind.org/blogs/quote-of-the-month/blaise-pascal-solitude.
7 Ibid.

The disquieting stuff mentioned above would somehow take its ground
on existentialists concept of Angst. Angst is a German word which
means simply anxiety or fear, but in existential philosophy it has
acquired the more specific sense of having anxiety or fear as a result
of the paradoxical implications of human freedom. 8 However it is
conceived, it is treated as a universal condition of human existence,
underlying everything about us.9 Kierkegaard used the term dread to
describe the general apprehension and anxiety in human life. 10
According to Kierkegaard, dread is built into us as a means for God to
call us to make a commitment of a moral and spiritual way of life
despite the void of meaninglessness before us. 11 The dual problems of
constant choices and the responsibility for those choices can produce
angst in us.12 Martin Heidegger used the term angst as a reference
point for the individuals confrontation with the impossibility of finding
meaning in a meaningless universe and of finding rational justification

8 Austin Cline, Angst: Dread, Anxiety, and Anguish, About Religion,

accessed March 24, 2015,
http://atheism.about.com/od/existentialistthemes/a/angst.htm.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid.

for subjective choices about irrational issues. 13 In his work, The

Concept of Dread, (1844) Kierkegaard analyzes the notion in terms of
our freedom and the anxiety of choice.14 He uses the example of a man
who when standing on the edge of a cliff realizes that he could hurl
himself over the edge at any moment. 15 In this way, the man
recognizes his own intrinsic freedom and the possibility of deciding his
own destiny.16 Like Kierkegaard, Sartre distinguished dread from fear
and related the idea to our intrinsic freedom and the necessity of
choice.17 Sartre uses the term bad faith to explain the flight we take
in avoiding this anxiety of our existential condition. 18 In contrast, he
argues for an authenticity which does not flee the anxiety but
accepts responsibility for our own choices.19 . For Heidegger the
recognition of the finitude of our existence comes through the angst or

13 Ibid.
14 New World Encyclopedia, accessed March 24, 2015,
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Dread.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid.
18 Ibid.
19 Ibid.

anxiety of our being-toward-death.20 Here too angst is associated

with freedom.21 Heidegger, like Kierkegaard, speaks of the dizziness of
possibility.22 Authenticity is the acceptance of this angst which leads to
the recognition of own most possibilities, that is, the possibilities
which are open concretely to us. 23 Authenticity is contrasted with an
inauthenticity which forgets the temporal character of our being and
instead falls into the everydayness of the 'they'.24
The three philosophers, Kierkegaard, Sartre, and Heidegger, showed
how Angst affects us; that there is Angst as the result of our freedom
and choices. According to Sartre we experience bad faith just to avoid
the Angst of our existential condition. However, for Kierkegaard we
experience Angst because of our choices and responsibility of those
choices. Heidegger would say that by being authentic to ourselves we
can actually confront this Angst in us.
With this, the idea of Angst leads us to study Pascals and
Montaignes concept of diversion as their way of facing this Angst. It is,
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid.
22 Ibid.
23 Ibid.
24 Ibid.

therefore,

indispensable

to

consider

the

views

of

these

two

philosophers regarding diversion.

1.2. Statement of the Problem

The prime problem, which is also being emphasized in this
research, is the inquiry about what really is diversion. Well, this is the
thing we should be acquainted with in this research.
For that reason, this study is an attempt to present diversion in its
entirety and how it is considered in the teachings of Blaise Pascal and
Michel de Montaigne.
Specifically, this study aims to answer the following queries which
serve as momentous guiding principles on this enterprise. The queries
are:
1. What is Blaise Pascals concept of diversion?
2. What is Michel de Montaignes concept of diversion?
3. What are the convergences and divergences of Pascals and
Montaignes views on diversion?

1.3. Significance of the Study

This endeavor is a humble contribution of the researcher to all who
are trying to find out what diversion really is. This study is significant
because the two philosophers used here have different backgrounds

concerning their experiences in life. This is significant not only for a

specific individual, but for all of us in this changing world of technology
that each of us may become cognizant of what diversion really is.
Thus, this research brings about supplemental information for
academic scholars about diversion in its entirety. The researcher
notices various conceptions of diversion when especially disquieting
stuff come to test us. Thats why, through this research all of us will be
enlightened

regarding

what

diversion

really

ismay

it

be

advantageous or disadvantageous. In this study, the researcher will

elaborate as much as he can with the help of the ample commentaries
regarding diversion as espoused by Blaise Pascal and Michel de
Montaigne.

1.4. Scope and Limitation

This study is centered on the presentation of Blaise Pascals and
Michel de Montaignes concept of diversion based on their respective
works. Consequently, this study limits itself exclusively to these two
philosophers concept of diversion.
This study uses Blaise Pascals concept of diversion in his books
Penses, and Human Happiness. On the other hand, Michel de
Montaignes concept of diversion will be exposed through his book The
Essays.

In order that diversion, as exposed by Blaise Pascal and Michel de

Montaigne, shall be fathomed more deeply, this research uses articles,
journals and other analyses of the works of these two philosophers in
order to come up with a deep grasp of their philosophies.

1.5. Theoretical Framework

For the readers supplemental data as to the works concerning
diversion, it is indeed indispensable to consider that there are
prominent authors who likewise made inquiries on diversion.
One is Peter Higbie Van Ness, who considers Pascals diversion by
stating the very experience of Pascal. It is stated in his book that
Pascal perceived his social peers to be consumed with a desire for
power in their occupations or for diversion in their recreations. 25 Each
pursuit achieves the same end: "Being unable to cure death,
wretchedness, and ignorance, men have decided in order to be happy,
not to think about such things."26 Certainly divertissement is portrayed

25 Peter Higbie Van Ness, Spirituality, Diversion, and Decadence: The Contemporary
Predicament (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992), 28.

26 Ibid.

10

by Pascal as an illusory source of relief. 27 In Pascals terminology, paths

of spiritual discipline are apt to devolve into diversion, not in the sense
of losing their distinctive orientation, but by becoming so spiritually
form of diversion.28 Peter Higbie Van Ness simply presents Pascals
concept of diversion in a very laconic way. In fact, his book does not
tackle exclusively on diversion.
William Wood in his book mentioned Pascals critique of boredom
(ennui) and diversion (divertissement). The heart of the critique is the
claim that people try to convince themselves that they are happy,
when in fact they suffer from profound existential boredom (ennui).
They relentlessly pursue diverting activities (divertissement) in order to
avoid confronting their own nullity and emptiness. Like concupiscence,
and vanity, ennui and divertissement are signs of the fall, and they are
ubiquitous because the consequences of the fall are ubiquitous. In his
critique of diversion and ennui, Pascal presents the fallen human
subject as an incoherent self-deceiver, one who continually lies to
himself about his own happiness. Although French ennui is often
translated by an English word boredom, and there is a considerable
semantic overlap between the two terms, Pascals ennui is more like a
kind of existential despair. According to Pascal, ennui is the felt
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid., 139.

11

response to the nullity and emptiness that characterizes the fallen

human condition as such. Elsewhere, Pascal argues that, even when
we

do

not

explicitly

attend

to

our

existential

emptiness,

we

nevertheless feel it. We feel the fall, and this feeling of our own
fallenness drives us toward self-deceptive diversions. 29 Finally, Pascals
analysis of boredom explicitly describes diversion as a kind of selfdeception. The truth about the real meaning of diversion is easily
grasped, and the fact that so few grasp it is the sign of the fall. 30 Lastly,
he said that what troubles Pascal is not that people enjoy diverting
activities, but that they persistently misunderstand their own desires. 31
They do not understand why they feel a ceaseless desire for
diversion.32 Similar to that of the latter, William Wood does not likewise
speak only of diversion in his book. That means he just mentioned in
his work briefly what diversion really is in the light of Pascal without
considering its entirety.
As to the diversion of Michel de Montaigne, Ann Hartle mentioned
how Montaigne dealt with his grief due to the death of his friend La
29 William Wood, Blaise Pascal on Duplicity, Sin, and the Fall: The Secret
Instinct (United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2013), 43.
30 Ibid., 79.
31 Ibid., 2.
32 Ibid.

12

Boetie. Montaigne resorted to diversion in order to distract himself

from that grief.33 Hartle recounted how Montaigne diverted a prince
from taking a vengeance. That in order to lead a prince away from
taking vengeance, Montaigne did not tell him that he must turn his
cheek to the man who has just struck the other one, for charitys sake,
nor did he represent to him the tragic results that poetry attributes to
this passion. He let the passion alone and applied himself to making
him relish the beauty of a contrary image: the honor, favor, and good
will he would acquire by clemency and kindness. Montaigne, hence,
diverted the prince to ambition. He acknowledges and accepts the
ambition of the prince, and he recognizes ambition as the passion that
might move and divert him. He does not appeal to a principle, not even
to the admonition of Christ to turn the other cheek. Rather, he appeals
to an image, and he shows the prince a possibility that, in his anger,
had not occurred to him. Presumably, that possibility is seen in a
particular image of clemency and kindness. To Hartle, one of
Montaignes chief goals is to turn the prince away from vengeance
toward mercy and gentleness.34

33 Ann Hartle, Michel De Montaigne: Accidental Philosopher (New York:

Cambridge University Press, 2003), 125.
34 Ibid., 235.

13

David Quint mentioned how Montaigne used diversion where he

explores how we can use the power of the mind to distract ourselves
from ills we cannot avoid, and of which he will give his most
spectacular example in De lexperience, where his mind, in a long
second person address, consoles him for his kidney stones and the
pain they are inflicting upon his body. Thus if the two ruling parts of
Montaignes being are in accord, they are so by virtue of a willed and
artful method of reasoning that is again at some remove from the
natural effortlessness and simplicity he claims for himself. 35 Another
thing, Quint considered that even the liberty and self-respect that
Montaigne claims that he and others can retain in the act of submitting
to power may appear to be a diversion, a way of cheering himself up in
the face of unpleasant political realities to which he sees no remedy,
much as he distracted himself from the pain of his incurable kidney
stones.36
Those Four authors mentioned above have contributed to the
interpretation of both philosophers, Montaigne and Pascal, view on
diversion. This study, however, is different from their studies because

35 David Quint, Montaigne and the Quality of Mercy: Ethical and Political
Themes in the Essais (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1998), 126.
36 Ibid., 139.

14

this puts together and compares Montaignes and Pascals views on

diversion in its entirety.

1.6. Research Methodology

In this undertaking, the research methodology used here includes
the method of research and the use of dataits sources, manner of
presenting and procedures in gathering and analyzing.
This study employs a qualitative type of research. This, specifically,
is a comparative study of the two philosophers' concept of diversion.
Thus, in its entirety, a descriptive-qualitative research method plays a
vital role all throughout the progression of this undertaking.
This study uses articles, journals from the internet as secondary
sources commenting and expounding both philosophers view on
diversion.

1.7. Organization of the Study

In chapter one which comprises The Problem and its Scope, the
researcher exposes the rationale of how important it is to study the
topic. This chapter tells us about some important details concerning
the topic. This chapter includes the statement of the problem, the
significance of studying this topic, the scope and limitation of the
study,

the

theoretical

framework,

the

research

methodology,

organization of the study, definition of terms, and review of related

literatures. With this, the chapter one shows the foundation for the
next chapters of the study.

15

In chapter two, the life, works, and influences of both philosophers

we are using in this undertaking are exposed. This is to understand the
background of their life as philosophers who are the contributors of the
concept of diversion.
In chapter three, the teachings of Blaise Pascals concept of
diversion will be exposed and discussed.
In chapter four, Michel de Montaignes concept of diversion is given
attention. His view on diversion is likewise exposed and discussed.
In the fifth chapter, the researcher intertwines the two perspectives
regarding diversion. In this chapter, the convergences and divergences
of Blaise Pascals and Michel de Montaignes view on diversion are
presented.
Lastly,

in

chapter

six,

Summary,

Conclusion

and

Recommendation will be established. The personal critical analysis of

the researcher is likewise presented in this chapter.

1.8. Definition of Terms

For better understanding of this study, some terms are being
defined the way they are used in this study. These contribute deep
clarity to the readers as to their usages here. For clarification, the
terms operationally used in this study are defined as follows:

16

Diversion is an act or an instance of diverting the mind or

attention from some activity or concern.37

Wretched means extremely unhappy or unfortunate.38

Distraction means something that distracts; synonymous with
amusement.39

Vehement means intensely emotional.40

Telos is a Greek term which means an ultimate end.41
Feeble and Mortal Condition is a natural misfortune that
afflicts us and renders us inconsolable.42

37 Philip Babctck Gove et al., ed., WebstersThird New International

Dictionary (U.S.A.: G. & C. Merriam Company, 1966), 662.
38 Ibid., 2640.
39 Eds. Merriam-Webster, Websters New Explorer Encyclopedic Dictionary
(United States of America: Federal Street Press, 2006 edition), 530.
40 Ibid., 2047.
41 Ibid., 1899.
42 Bodhipaksa, loc. cit.

17

1.9. Review of Related Literature and Studies

Peter Higbie Van Ness. Spirituality,
Diversion, and Decadence: The
Contemporary Predicament. Albany:
State University of New York Press,
1992.

This book makes a good use of Pascals notion of diversion and

Nietzsches idea of decadence in identifying and understanding
contemporary types of spiritual pathology which make people helpless
to manipulation by powerful institutions. This book proffers new ways
of looking at various practices such as praying, meditation, etc.
Furthermore, the author interpreted Pascals diversion which he called
as divertissement to be the misleading source of relief.

William Wood. Blaise Pascal on

Duplicity, Sin, and the Fall: The
Secret Instinct. United Kingdom:
Oxford University Press, 2013.

18

This book presents Pascals version of the mental consequences

of the fall. For Pascal, this fall is a fall into deception. Thus, we find it
easy to reject God and even deceive ourselves, even, because we are
born into a deceitful world. This book likewise stresses the view of the
self. The author interpreted Pascals diversion to be the result of mans
misunderstanding of his desires. Man continues to divert simply
because he cannot understand his self. In the Augustinian custom, this
book speaks of the interest in philosophical and theological accounts of
sin and self-deception.

Ann Hartle. Michel de Montaigne:

Accidental Philosopher. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2003.
This book accounts Montaigne as an unpremeditated and
accidental philosopher. Ann Hartle proffers an account that reveals
Montaigne's thought to be dialectical because of the transformation of
Montaignes skeptical doubt into the familiar aspect of life. According
to Ann Hartle, Montaigne invented The Essay because his thought
could not be expressed in the traditional philosophical forms. Likewise,
this book mentioned a few of diversion which Montaigne has
contributed, although this book focuses more on Montaignes being an
accidental philosopher. Here in this book, accidental philosophy as non-

19

authoritative and purely human that implies that truth is prephilosophical and pre-reflective.

David Quint. Montaigne and the

Quality of Mercy: Ethical and
Political Themes in the Essais. New
Jersey: Princeton University Press,
1998.

This book makes a good use of Montaignes concept of diversion

necessary in the area of clemency and revenge. For Quint, the mind is
very powerful to distract ourselves from the ills we cannot avoid.
Furthermore, diversion is just a part of the books content because this
book likewise shows Montaigne's reproach of passive simulations of
virtue, his plan to change his noble class cruel behavior, his selfportrait that illustrates his unaffected nature, and his virtue in relation
to that of Socrates. Quint, in this book, also shows Montaigne as both a
political thinker and a literary man who is concerned with the societys
moral basis. He mentions the cannibals of Brazil who are in warfare
and that in conflict, Montaigne urges mercy to others.

20

CHAPTER 2
Life, Works, and Influences
2.1. Michel de Montaigne
2.1.1. Life
The early life of Montaigne before starting his works on various
matters are said to be held in leash by his father. Michel Eyquem de
Montaigne, who was born near Bordeaux, France, was a French
essayist and skeptical philosopher.43 He was born on February 28,
1533. He was the third son, but by the death of his elder brothers he

43 Paul Edwards, ed., The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (London: Collier

Macmillan Publishers, 1967), 366.

21

became heir to the estate. His father, Pierre Eyquem, was a merchant
and his mother was a Spanish Jew. He received his training in language
through his fathers insistence to teach him Latin first. His father had
him awakened each morning by the sound of a musical instrument.
Servants who could speak no French were assigned to teach him Latin
orally before he had learned his native tongue. At the age of six, he
was sent to the College of Guienne at Bordeaux, where he remained
for seven years. In 1546, he was put in the study law. In 1554, his
father had secured a magistrates seat for him. He made frequent
visits to Paris, the city which made him French. 44 His married life is said
to be difficult, yet he strove to live with his family excellently despite
his daily struggles. In 1565, he married Francoise de la Chassaigne,
whose father was also a member of the Bourdeaux Parliament. His
daughter, Leonore, was the only one of the six children to survive
infancy. In 1568, upon the death of his father, he inherited the family
estate. In 1571, he abandoned the name of Eyquem, and lived a
tolerable life that is a burden neither to him nor to anyone else. 45
Shortly after he returned to his chateau, he was stricken with quinsy,
which brought about paralysis of the tongue. He remained in
possession of his other faculties and, on the evening of September 13,
44 Ibid.
45 Cf. Michel De Montaigne, The Essays, trans. Charles Cotton, ed. W. Carew
Hazlitt (London: William Benton Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1989), V.

22

1592, asked his wife, in writing, to call together some of his neighbors
so he might bid them farewell. He requested mass to be said in his
room, and died while it was being celebrated.46

2.1.2. Works
These are the works of Montaigne after choosing to live a tolerable life.
He had translated the Theologia Naturalis of Raymund of Sabunde, a
Spanish schoolman, at the request of his father. He prepared for
publication the works of Etienne de la Boetie, a friend of his youth,
whose death, in 1563, he felt as a great loss. He wrote the first two
volumes of The Essays, which were published in 1580 in Bordeaux. 47 In
the year following the publication of the Essays, he left his estate for
extensive travel to obtain relief from internal disorders that had been
troubling him. He journeyed through Lorraine, Switzerland, Bavaria,
and Italy. He traveled to Rome, where he had an audience with the
Pope and was made a Roman citizen. 48 He had begun to revise his
Essays almost immediately after their publication in 1580. In 1588, he

46 Ibid.
47 Ibid.
48 Ibid.

23

completed the work and re-issued a revised version of the first two
books together with a final volume of the essays written since 1580.49
In his Essays, Michel de Montaigne expressed a captivating version of
classical skepticism.50 Within the ancient writings of the skeptics,
Montaigne discovered a new way of viewing daily life. 51 Montaigne saw
himself as an unpremeditated philosopherone who was not
confined intellectually to some rigid set of ideas within which his
thought and life must be expressed.52

2.1.3. Influences
Montaigne has been a very influential figure of his time. His influence
has been diverse and widespread.
In the seventeenth century, it was his skepticism that proved
most influential among philosophers and theologians. After his death,
his friend Pierre Charron himself, a prominent Catholic theologian,
produced two works, Les Trois Vritez (1594) and La Sagesse (1601),
49 Ibid.
50 Samuel Enoch Stumpf, Socrates to Sartre and Beyond, Seventh Edition
(New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2003), 200.
51 Ibid., 200.
52 Ibid., 201.

24

that drew heavily from the Essays. He also influenced Descartes,

particularly in the latters Discourse on Method. Pascal, on the other
hand, also profoundly influenced by the Essays, concluded that reason
cannot answer the theoretical question of the existence of God, and
that therefore it was necessary to inquire into the practical rationality
of religious belief.53
In

the

eighteenth

century,

the

attention

of

the

French Philosophy focused not so much on Montaignes skepticism.

Denis Diderot and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who were both influenced
by Montaigne, created the ideal of the noble savage, which figured
significantly in their moral philosophies. Meanwhile, in Scotland, David
Humes Treatise of Human Nature showed traces of Montaignes
influence, as did his Essays, Moral and Political.54 A century later,
Montaigne

would

become

favorite

of Ralph

Waldo

Emerson and Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche, for his part, admired

Montaignes clear-sighted honesty and his ability to both appreciate
and communicate the joy of existence. In Schopenhauer as Educator,
he writes of Montaigne: the fact that such a man has written truly
adds to the joy of living on this earth.55
53 Ibid., 200.
54 Ibid.
55 Ibid.

25

In

the

forerunner

twentieth
of

various

century

Montaigne

contemporary

was

identified

movements,

as

such

a
as

postmodernism and pragmatism. Judith Shklar, in her book Ordinary

Vices, identified Montaigne as the first modern liberal, by which she
meant that Montaigne was the first to argue that cruelty is the worst
thing

that

we

do. In Contingency,

Irony,

and

Solidarity, Richard

Rorty borrowed Shklars definition of a liberal to introduce the figure of

the liberal ironist. Rortys description of the liberal ironist as someone
who is both a radical skeptic and a liberal in Shklars sense has led
some to interpret Montaigne as having been a liberal ironist himself. 56
As many scholars have noted, the style of the Essays makes them
amenable to a wide range of interpretations, which explains the fact
that many thinkers with diverse worldviews have found the Essays to
be a mirror in which they see their own reflection, albeit perhaps
clarified to some degree by Montaignes penetrating insights into
human nature.57

2.2. Blaise Pascal

56 Ibid.
57Christopher Edelman, ed., Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, accessed
August 1, 2014, http://www.iep.utm.edu/montaign/#H6.

26

2.2.1. Life
Pascal was born at Clermont Ferrand in Auvergne on June 19,
1623. His father, Etienne Pascal, was once a lawyer in Paris and held
the post of President of the Court of Aids at Clermont. His mother, the
pious Antoinette Begon, died in 1626, leaving her husband to care for
Gilberte, Blaise, and the baby, Jacqueline. 58 In 1631, Etienne Pascal
sold his post and moved to Paris for the education of his son. Pascal
mastered Greek and Latin. At the age of twelve, he began geometry by
himself. Herewith, his father noticed his intelligence on this matter. 59 A
few years later, he still achieved greater reputation by his invention of
the first calculating machine, though his health was affected by his
intellectual work.60 Although the Pascal family had been regular and
respectful in their religious practice, religion was not especially
important in their lives until 1646 when they became acquainted with
Jansenism. Pascal, then only twenty-three, had his attention directed to
religious and theological questions, and he seemed to have been
influential in converting his whole family to the Jansenist version of

58 Blaise Pascal, The Provincial Letters Pensees Scientific Treatises, ed.

Robert Maynard Hutchins (London and New York: William Benton
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1952, 1989), V.
59 Ibid.
60 Ibid.

27

Catholicism. His sister, Jacqueline, decided to renounce the world, and

on the death of her father in 1651, she entered the Jansenist convent
of Port Royal.61 In 1654, Pascal left an extreme dislike for the attraction
of the world. The contrast between his life and that of Jacqueline,
whom he visited the same year at Port Royal, intensified his
dissatisfaction. His growing decision to retire from the world was
confirmed on November 23, 1654, when he experienced what is known
as his second conversion. The written memorial of that experience,
which he wore thereafter as a kind of amulet, records that from tenthirty until twelve-thirty that night he knew the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of philosophers and scientists and that
he resolved total submission to Jesus Christ. The following January he
went on retreat at Port Royal, and, although he did not actually become
one of its famous solitaries, he was henceforth identified with its
interests.62 As death approached, Pascals life became more austere.
He gave his possessions to the poor and continually strove for
complete detachment from those he loved. In June 1662, he gave
shelter to a poor family which developed smallpox. Rather than
disposses them, he moved to the house of Gilberte, where he was

61 Ibid.
62 Ibid.

28

seized with a violent illness which lingered for two months. He died
August 19, at the age of thirty-nine.63

2.2.2. Works
Pascal

himself

continued

his

scientific

and

mathematical

researches. In 1647, he performed his variations on Torricellis

experiment, which resulted in his New Experiments concerning the
Vacuum (1647). By 1651, he had apparently completed most of the
work for his Great Experiment concerning the Equilibrium of Fluids,
although it was not published until 1663. Upon the death of his father,
he laid aside his researches, frequented polite society with his friends,
the young Duc de Roannez and the Chevalier de Mere, shared their
interests, and read Epictetus and Montaigne. He began to investigate
the theory of probability in order to solve a problem posed by De Mere
concerning the division of stakes in a game of chance. His results
appeared in 1654 in the correspondence with Fermat and in the
Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle.64 Pascals talents were soon
employed by the Jansenists. In 1655 Antoine Arnauld, the official
theologian of Port Royal, was condemned by the Sorbonne, and it was
considered expedient to enlist public opinion for the Jansenists against
63 Ibid., V-VI.

64 Ibid.

29

their Jesuit adversaries. Perhaps at the suggestion of Arnauld himself,

Pascal began his Provincial Letters, which, from January, 1656 to April
1657, captivated Paris by their style as well as their polemic. He was
also asked to work upon a manual of geometry for use in the Port Royal
schools, and it is probably in connection with this that he wrote his
essay On Geometrical Demonstration.65 Afflicted with ill-health from
infancy, Pascals suffering had become so acute in 1658 that any
sustained effort became increasingly difficult. In one attempt to
distract his mind from a persistent toothache, he turned to the problem
of the cycloid, which he had occupied his friend, Roberval, as well as
many other mathematicians of the time. Before publishing his results,
he proposed his theorems for public competition. Wallis and Lalouere
among others accepted the challenge, but only Pascal was able to
provide the complete solution.66 Although he considered geometry the
highest exercise of the mind, as he wrote Fermat, it is only a trade
and I am steeped in studies so far from that mentality, that scarcely
do I remember that there is any such. After the cure his niece at Port
Royal in 1656, which was known as the Miracle of the Holy Thorn,
Pascal began reading and collecting material for what he planned to be
an Apology for the Christian Religion. He put down his thoughts upon
65 Ibid.
66 Ibid.

30

the first scrap of paper that came to hand a few words and very
often parts of words only. These fragments, found after his death,
compose what has come to be known as his Penses, which were first
edited by the Jansenists in 1670 and constantly re-edited thereafter.67

2.2.3. Influences
Blaise Pascal was an influential mathematical writer, a master of the
French language, and a great religious philosopher (a person who
seeks wisdom).68 He began making contributions to mathematics at a
very young age.69 The computer programming language Pascal is
named after him.70 His religious works, "Lettres provinciales and the
Penses" had a religious influence all over France and created a new

level of style in French prose.71

67 Ibid.
68 Blaise Pascals Biography, Encyclopedia of World Biography, accessed
August 3, 2014, http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ni-Pe/Pascal-Blaise.html.
69 Ibid.
70 Ibid.
71 Blaise Pascals Biography,The Famous People, accessed August 3, 2014,
http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/blaise-pascal-131.php.

31

CHAPTER 3
Blaise Pascals Concept of Diversion

Pascal

started

his

discussion

on

diversion

by

considering

the

distractions of men as diversions.

3.1. Reasons of diversion

3.1.1. Death
Pascal realized that death can be borne easily when we do not
think of it. Thats why, in order not to think of it, we need a diversion.
Thinking of death makes us miserable. And so Pascal said:
The miseries of human life have established all this:
as men have seen this, they have taken up
diversion.72

It is through diversion that we overcome the reality of death. The fact

here is that we are not able to fight against death, misery, ignorance.
And so in order for us to be happy, we will not think of them at all. It is
in this way that diversion takes place. Furthermore, Pascal said:
Despite these miseries, man wishes to be happy
and only wishes to be happy, and cannot wish not
to be so. But how will he set about it? To be happy
72 Pascal, op. cit., 203.

32
he would have to make himself immortal; but, not
being able to do so, it has occurred to him to
prevent himself from thinking of death.73

As follows, death becomes the reason of diversion. However, Pascal

likewise considered that diversion would lead us unconsciously to
death, when he said:
But diversion amuses us, and leads us unconsciously to death. 74

3.1.2. Wretchedness
Pascal deliberated man as so wretched that he would weary even
without any cause for weariness and man is likewise so frivolous that
even playing billiards or hitting a ball is sufficient to amuse him. Thus,
for Pascal, even if we see ourselves happy, weariness would still not
fail to arise from the depths of the heart. In an instance, Pascal cited a
man who simply receives each morning the money even without
playing. That man remains miserable because he still seeks the
amusement of play and not the winnings. To this, Pascal said:
However full of sadness a man may be, he is happy
for the time, if you can prevail upon him to enter
into some amusement; and however happy a man
may be, he will soon be disconnected and
wretched, if he be not diverted and occupied by
some passion or pursuit which prevents weariness
from overcoming him.75
73 Ibid.
74 Pascal, loc. cit.
75 Ibid., 198-199.

33

Hence, because of our wretchedness, we resort to diversion to free us

from being wretched that weariness may not hold us in leash. Justin
Taylor would explain this wretchedness saying that the compulsive
search for diversion is often an attempt to escape the wretchedness of
life.76 In addition to this, Pascal said:
Man finds nothing so intolerable as to be in a state
of complete rest, without passions, without
occupation, without diversion, without effort. Then
he faces his nullity, loneliness, inadequacy,
dependence, helplessness, emptiness. And at once
there wells up from the depths of his soul boredom,
gloom, depression, chagrin, resentment, despair. 77

Stephen James Carter explained the above views of Pascal as

something to be predicated upon the notion of rest leading inevitably
toward contemplation of the self, which leads directly to meditating on
the natural poverty of our feeble and mortal condition of man so
miserable that nothing can comfort us when we think of it closely. In
short, we are screwed.78

3.1.3. Secret Instincts

76 Taylor, loc. cit.
77 Blaise Pascal, Human Happiness, trans., A.J. Krailsheimer (England: Peguin
Books, 2008), 91.
78 Stephen James Carter, Distractions and Diversions: Masking Our Feeble and
MortalCondition in Pascals Pensees, The Great Conversation, January 27, 2012,
accessed November 2,2014, http://readingthegreat.com/distractions-and-diversionsmasking-our-feeble-and-mortal-condition-in-pascals-pensees/.

34

According to Pascal, men have secret instincts. The first is the

instinct that impels men to seek amusement and occupation. This sort
arises from the sense of mens constant unhappiness. The second
instinct is a remnant of the greatness of our original nature which
teaches men that happiness in reality consists only in rest and not in
stir. These two instincts are contrary to each other. Thats why, for
Pascal, a confused idea is formed within them. For this reason, man
either resorts to diversion or not. When he resorts to diversion, it is
because of this first instinct to seek amusement due to unhappiness.
Normally, man seeks diversion because of his first instinct.

3.1.4. Feeble and Mortal Condition

Pascal has apprehended that man is unhappy or man cannot
really stay quietly in his own chamber because of the natural poverty
of his feeble and mortal condition. This feeble and mortal condition, to
him, is so miserable that nothing can comfort us when we think of it
closely. Besides, Pascal said:
If our condition were truly happy, we would not
need diversion from thinking of it in order to make
ourselves happy.79

Pascal would like to say that we need diversion because of the

very fact of our condition that is feeble and mortal. Being feeble and
mortal is in the first place so unhappy. Thats why to be able to make
79 Pascal, loc. cit.

35

ourselves happy, one thing is indispensable and that is what Pascal

called a diversion.

3.2. The mind in relation to diversion

Pascal has made a comparison as to mans use of his intellect before
and now. To him, both times are different as to the use of the
intellect. To this, Pascal explained:
Man is obviously made for thinking. Therein lies all
his dignity and his merit; and his whole duty is to
think as he ought. Now the order of thought is to
begin with ourselves, and with our author and our
end. Now what does the world think about? Never
about that, but about dancing, playing the lute,
singing, writing verse, tilting at the ring, etc., and
fighting, becoming king, without thinking what it
means to be a king or to be a man. 80

Obviously, what Pascal referred to upon saying that what the world
thinks now is about dancing, playing, singing, etc., is primarily all
about diversion. In other words, diversion is what is given importance
in the world now.

3.3. Results of Diversion

3.3.1. Feeble Happiness
Pascal deliberated diversion to be the source of happiness. Yet,
this sort of happiness is so feeble to the extent that it cannot sustain
man forever and so naturally, man becomes sad. This happiness is
80 Ibid.

36

called as feeble happiness. Pascal expounded this clearly when he

said:
Yet, when we imagine a king attended with every
pleasure he can feel, if he be without diversion and
be left to consider and reflect on what he is, this
feeble happiness will not sustain him; he will
necessarily fall into forebodings of dangers, of
revolutions which may happen, and finally, of death
and inevitable disease; so that, if he be without
what is called diversion, he is unhappy and more
unhappy than the least of his subjects who plays
and diverts himself.81

Because of this, Pascal concluded that play and the society of women,
war and high posts, are so sought after. To him, these are sought not
that there are, in fact, any happiness in them, or that men imagine
true bliss to consist in money won at play, or in the hare which they
hunt, but because of the bustle which averts our thoughts and amuses
us. Pascal, likewise, concluded that because of this, men so much love
noise and stir, prison is so horrible a punishment, the pleasure of
solitude is a thing incomprehensible. Thats why, for Pascal, it is the
greatest source of happiness the condition of kings that men try
incessantly to divert them and to procure for them all kinds of
pleasures. For Pascal, this is true about a king:
The king is surrounded by persons whose only
thought is to divert the king and to prevent his
thinking of self. For, he is unhappy, king though he
be, if he thinks of himself.82

81 Pascal, Provincial Letters Pensees Scientific Treatises, 196-197.

37

Another supplemental view as to why diversion elicits feeble

happiness is the fact that diversion simply comes from elsewhere and
from without. This is explicitly explained by Montaigne when he said:
If man were happy, he would be the more so, the
less he was diverted, like the Saints and God. Yes;
but it is not to be happy to have a faculty of being
amused by diversion? No; for that comes from
elsewhere and from without, and thus is
dependent, and therefore subject to be disturbed
by a thousand accidents, which bring inevitable
griefs.83

3.3.2. Greatest Misery

Mans only wish, for Pascal, is to be happy despite his miseries.
In order to do this, he would make himself immortal. To this Pascal
explicated:
Despite these miseries, man wishes to be happy
and only wishes to be happy, and cannot wish not
to be so. But how will he set about it? To be happy
he would have to make himself immortal; but, not
being able to do so, it has occurred to him to
prevent himself from thinking of death.84

However, despite all our miseries, the only thing that would
console us from them is diversion. Yet, diversion is accordingly our
greatest misery likewise because it hinders us of thinking who we are
and for that reason ruins us in the end and eventually leads us to
82 Pascal, op. cit., 197.
83 Ibid., 196-197.
84 Ibid., 203.

38

death without knowing about it. Pascal thoroughly expounded this

when he said:
The only thing which consoles us for our miseries is
diversion, and yet this is the greatest of our
miseries. For it is this which principally hinders us
from reflecting upon ourselves and which makes us
insensibly ruin ourselves. Without this we should be
in a state of weariness, and this weariness would
spur us to seek a more solid means of escaping
from it. But diversion amuses us, and leads us
unconsciously to death.85

3.3.3. Unhappiness
Pascal has discovered that when he set to thinking about the
various activities of men, the distractions, all the unhappiness of men
arises from one single fact that they cannot stay quietly in their own
chamber. Because of diversion, one can hardly stay quietly in his room.
In other words, Pascal considered diversion to be the cause of sadness,
because, to him, solitude is the source of happiness. This is what he
meant by staying quietly in ones room. This is given an example by
Pascal when he said:
A man wealthy enough for lifes needs would never
leave home to go to sea or besiege some fortress if
he knew how to stay at home and enjoy it. Men
would never spend so much on a commission in the
army if they could bear living in town all their lives
and they only seek after the company and
diversion of gambling because they do not enjoy
staying at home.86
85 Pascal. op. cit., 203.
86 Pascal, Human Happiness, 32.

39

This rich man, an example used by Pascal, primarily doesnt

know how to live in solitude and based on Pascals criterion of
happiness, this man would eventually end up unhappy.

3.3.4. Idle amusement

Pascal likewise termed diversion as amusement. To him, without
amusement there is no joy; with amusement there is no sadness. This
joy in amusement which at the earlier part Pascal considered as feeble
happiness constitutes the happiness of persons in high position, that
they have a number of people to amuse them and have the power to
keep themselves in this state. Pascal wanted us to consider this:
What is it to be superintendent, chancellor, first
president, but to be in a condition wherein from
early morning a large number of people come from
all quarters to see them, so as not to leave them an
hour in the day in which they can think of
themselves? And when they are in disgrace and
sent back to their country houses, where they lack
neither wealth nor servants to help them on
occasion, they do not fail to be wretched and
desolate, because no one prevents them from
thinking of themselves.87

Pascal considered amusements as idle amusements because

man is full of wretchedness without diversion. This is very clear to a
king who is surrounded by persons who are wonderfully attentive in
taking care that he be not alone and in a state to think of himself,

87 Pascal, Provincial Letters Penses Scientific Treatise, 199.

40

knowing well that he will be miserable, king he is, if he meditates on

self.

CHAPTER 4

41

Michel de Montaignes Concept of Diversion

Montaigne

started

his

essay

on

diversion

by

citing

his

experience, having employed to console a lady truly afflicted.

4.1. Reasons of diversion

4.1.1. Death
Montaigne cited occurrences about how men diverted their
thoughts from the consideration of death. They even have fainted upon
casting their eyes upon the dreadful instruments of death. Explicitly,
they overcome the fear of death through diversion. This is one of the
occurrences cited by Montaigne.
The poor wretches whom we see brought up on the
scaffold, full of ardent devotion employing all
their senses, their ears in hearing the instructions
given them, their eyes and hands lifted up towards
heaven they shun the encounter, they divert
their thoughts from the consideration of death as
children are amused with some toy or other... I
have seen some, who, casting their eyes upon the
dreadful instruments of death run about, have
fainted, and furiously turned their thoughts another
way; such as are to pass a formidable precipice, are
advised either to shut or to avert their eyes. 88

Another occurrence similarly cited by Montaigne was about a soldier

whose thought was diverted by his fight. That is to say, that man was
able to overcome still the fear of death through this sort of diversion.
The occurrence is this:
88 De Montaigne, op. cit., 402.

42
He, who dies in a battle, with a sword in his hand,
does not then think of death, he feels or considers
it not; the ardor of the fight diverts his thought
another way.89

There are a lot more occurrences related to both mentioned. Yet, of all
these occurrences, Montaigne would say that like circumstances
amuse, divert, and turn our thoughts from the consideration of the
thing in itself. Like so, diverting our thoughts yields to not thinking of
death at all. For that reason, Montaigne claims that death leads us
naturally to diversion.

4.1.2. Vehement Displeasure

Montaigne himself has lived through an intense discontentment
or unhappiness which is called as vehement displeasure. This
vehement displeasure affected him to the extent of losing himself into
it all throughout by the time he would rely solely on his strength. To
this Montaigne said:
I was once wounded with a vehement displeasure,
and withal, more just than vehement; I might
peradventure have lost myself in it, if I had merely
trusted to my own strength.90

For that reason, Montaigne realized that he needs diversion to

disengage himself from his feeling when he said:
Having need of a powerful diversion to disengage
me, by art and study, I became amorous, wherein I
was assisted by my youth: love relieved and
89 De Montaigne, op. cit., 403.
90 Ibid., 404.

43
rescued me from evil wherein friendship had
engaged me.91

4.1.3. A little thing

Montaigne discovered the inevitable relationship of every little thing to
us. To him, every little thing will turn and divert us. The reason why a
little thing stimulates diversion is that this little thing holds us.
Accordingly, Montaigne would simply like to exhort us that all things
around us bring about an impact to the extent of diverting us. In
consequence, a thing around us is so powerful that allows our attention
to be diverted to other concerns. About this, Montaigne said:
A little thing will turn and divert us, because a little
thing holds us.92

There are occurrences given by Montaigne as to this view like Plutarch

himself, who laments his daughter for the little apish tricks of her
infancy, the sight of Caesars robe troubled all Rome, which was more
than his death had done, the sound of names ringing in our ears as my
poor master, my faithful friend, alas, my dear father, or, my sweet
daughter, afflict us, and lastly the remembrance of a farewell, of the
particular grace of an action, of a last recommendation, afflicts us.93
91 Ibid.
92 Ibid.
93 Ibid.

44

All these, for Montaigne, are the foundations of our mourning.

4.2. The mind in relation to diversion

Montaigne tells us that when physicians cannot stop a catarrh,
they divert and turn it into some other less dangerous part. With this,
he found out that this is also the most ordinary practice for the
diseases of the mind: The mind is sometimes to be diverted to other
studies, thoughts, cares, and business.94 Furthermore, for Montaigne,
to jostle mans infirmities, we neither make him sustain nor repel the
attack, we only make him decline and evade it. This is the reality of our
mind:
We always think of something else; either the hope
of a better life comforts and supports us, or the
hope of our childrens worth, or the future glory of
our name, or the vengeance that threatens those
who are the causes of our death, administers
consolation to us.95

According to David Quint, Montaigne explores how we can use the

powers of the mind to distract ourselves from ills we cannot avoid, and
which he himself uses his mind to console himself for his kidney stones
and the pain that inflicts upon his body.96
94 Ibid., 402.
95 Ibid., 403.
96 Quint, op. cit., 126.

45

4.3. Results of diversion

4.3.1. Not-Gone-to-the-Root Consolation
In the first part of Montaignes essay on diversion, he introduced
his experience being employed to console a lady truly afflicted. He
mentioned that although he was able to console her through diversion,
yet he likewise accepted that, that afflicted lady only received a
transient relief due to the fact that diversion, which he used to comfort
her, does not totally heals the root of the affliction and so those who
succeeded him did not find any amendment in her. Montaigne,
concerning this, said:
I imperceptibly led her from that sorrowful
thought, and kept her calm and in good humor
whilst I continued there. I herein made use of
diversion. They, who succeeded me in the same
service, did not for all that find any amendment in
her for I had not gone to the root.97

As stated by Dorothea Heitsch, Montaigne consoles a lady by diverting

her attention away from her grief and the consolation he gives to the
lady becomes a diversion.98

4.3.2. Deception

97 De Montaigne, op. cit., 401.

98 Dorothea B. Heitsch, Practising Reform in Montaignes Essais
(Netherlands: Brill Academic Publication, 2000), 45.

46

Montaigne mentioned about a story of the life of Atlanta, a virgin of

excelling beauty and wonderful disposition of the body, to disengage
herself from the crowd of a thousand suitors who sought her in
marriage, made this proposition, that she would accept him for her
husband who should equal her in running, upon condition that they
who failed should lose their lives. To Montaigne, there were enough
who thought the prize very well worth the hazard, and who suffered
the cruel penalty of the contract. Among the suitors as accounted by
Montaigne, it was Hipomenes who did the challenge. As he was about
to make the trial after the rest, he made his address to the goddess of
love, imploring her assistance; and she, granting his request, gave him
three golden apples, and instructed him how to use them. To continue
the story, the race began, as Hipomenes perceived his mistress to
press hard up to him, he, as it were by chance, let fall one of these
apples; the maid, taken with the beauty of it, failed not to step out of
her way to pick it up. Now Montaigne described the virgins reaction by
saying:
Obstupuit virgo, nitidique cupidine pomi, declinat
cursus,aurumque volubile tollit. 99

99 De Montaigne, op. cit., 402. This quotation taken by Montaigne from Ovid
means: The virgin, dazzled at beholding the glittering apple, and eager to
possess it stopped her career, and seized the rolling gold.

47

To Montaigne, Hipomenes did the same, by the second and the third,
till by so diverting her, and making her lose so much ground, he won
the race.
We see in the story cited by Montaigne, that Atlanta finally gave
herself to Hipomenes not because of her love, but because she was
diverted by the glittering apple used by Hipomenes to divert her. In
this sense, Atlanta was deceived by that glittering apple to which she
was so diverted. Hence, diversion as it was shown in the story could
likewise be the source of deception.

4.3.3. Overcome Revenge

Montaigne defined revenge as a sweet passion of great and
natural impression. And so, when one is offended, it is ones natural
impression to take revenge. However, Montaigne showed us based on
his experience that revenge can actually be overcome. He cited an
instance about a prince who wanted to revenge, yet that princes
attention was successfully diverted by him so that revenge would not
be feasible. Concerning this, Montaigne said:
From this not long ago to divert a young prince, I
did not tell him that he must, to him who had
struck him upon the one cheek, turn the other,
upon account of charity; nor go about to represent
to him the tragical events that poetry attributes to
this passion; I did not touch upon that string; but I
busied myself to make him relish the beauty of a
contrary image: and, by representing to him what
honour, esteem, and good will he would acquire by

48
clemency and
ambition.100

good

nature,

diverted

him

to

Through diversion, a young prince was not being able to revenge.

David Quint presumed that the young prince, having swayed by
Montaigne from revenge to clemency by appealing to the princes
ambition and pointing out to him the honor and favor, was no other
than Henri himself.101

CHAPTER 5
Comparison of Pascals and Montaignes Concept of
Diversion

100 Ibid., 403.

101 Cf. Quint, op. cit., 143. On page 150, David Quint cited the background of
Henri. He said that King Henri IV in a letter of 1590, was presumably the
same young prince whom Montaigne diverts from revenge in De la
diversion. Henri was assassinated in 1610.

49

The essential of analyzing a concept written by two authors is to

pinpoint the authors convergences and divergences of the topic. As to
this research, Pascal and Montaigne have similar concepts of
wretchedness and feeble happiness. Likewise, as to the divergences,
Pascal and Montaigne have distinctive views on the Telos of diversion,
on death, and on the mind.

5.1. Convergences
5.1.1. Wretchedness
Pascal

and

Montaigne,

likewise,

have

similarly

viewed

wretchedness to be one of the reasons why diversion is being

considered by us. Pascal has deliberated man to be wretched already
in the first place. Thats why man wearies even if there are no reasons
of his weariness. And although man is happy now, this happiness is just
transient by the fact that wretchedness would really find ways to arise
from time to time. Accordingly, man diverts himself to free him of his
wretchedness.
Montaigne equally considered wretchedness as inexorable. He
himself has experienced the wretchedness which he called as
vehement displeasure. To him, relying solely on his strength is
insufficient to comfort him. For that reason, Montaigne resorted to
diversion. It is through diversion that he was able to overcome
wretchedness.

50

Both Pascal and Montaigne considered diversion to be an

indispensable and direct means of overcoming our wretchedness.
5.1.2. Feeble Happiness
Pascal and Montaigne related diversion to happiness. Yet this
happiness from diversion is so feeble that it cannot sustain man
forever. Pascal cited an instance about a king whose happiness is just
dependent on his subjects who would divert him. Yet, the happiness
that a king felt is so feeble that when his subjects responsible for his
diversion would not be around, he will eventually be the saddest
among the least of his subjects.
Montaigne, likewise, showed how happiness from diversion is
feeble by citing an example from his experience himself being
employed to console a lady that with his observation, those who
succeeded him to console that afflicted lady did not find any
amendment in her situation due to the fact that the happiness the lady
felt is simply transient. Although the term used by Montaigne is notgone-to-the-root. Yet this is clear that this term refers to happiness
that is feeble or transient.

5.2. Divergences
5.2.1. Telos of Diversion
Both Pascal and Montaigne mentioned happiness as the telos of
diversion, although they considered it as feeble in the sense that for

51

Montaigne diversion does not really go to the root of the affliction and
likewise for Pascal diversion does not sustain the happiness of man
forever. Yet only Pascal went further as to the misery is concerned. For
Pascal, the only thing which consoles us for our miseries is diversion,
and yet this is the greatest of our miseries.
Pascal deliberated diversion to also be the greatest of our
miseries since it is this which principally hinders us from reflecting
upon ourselves and which makes us insensibly ruined. To him, without
diversion we should be in a state of weariness, and this weariness
would spur us to seek a more solid means of escaping from it.
5.2.2. Death
Pascal would emphasize that when we think of death, we become
so miserable. Death, as we all know, is an inevitable circumstance in
our life. And so, to be able to shun us from thinking about it, Pascal
would say that we naturally take diversion. However, for Pascal,
although we need diversion in order not to think about death, diversion
slowly leads us unconsciously to death. This makes Pascals notion of
death a bit different from that of Montaigne.
On the other hand, Montaigne simply considered diversion as a
means of not thinking of death. He has demonstrated his view on
death through examples to show the relevance of diversion to death.
One of the instances cited by Montaigne was about poor wretches who
diverted their attention by thinking of something to be able not to take

52

notice of the sharp lance that would be used to take away their lives.
The diversion of the poor wretches thoughts enabled them to forget
death because they were so amused with another thing like a child
who amuses himself by playing different things.
5.2.3. Mind
Both Pascal and Montaigne hold that the mind now is directed
towards consolations or something that amuses us. With this, Pascal
would say that the mind no longer considers how it is to be a man and
for Montaigne, this is the diseases of the mind being sometimes
diverted to other studies, thoughts, cares, and business. Thats why for
Montaigne, the mind does other concerns in order to decline and evade
something that is against it. Although both Pascal and Montaigne
similarly adequated the above mentioned, only Pascal went further
that

man

is

actually

made

to

thinkto

think

not

always

amusements, but to think first about him, God, and lastly his end.

of

53

CHAPTER 6
Summary, Conclusion and Recommendation

6.1. Summary
What really is diversion? What is in diversion? These questions
are the reasons why this research is made feasible. By reading the
writings of Pascal and Montaigne about diversion, then surely these
two questions can be clarified.
Both Pascal and Montaigne presented their contention of
diversion in a manner that allows the reader to spot the reasons and
results of diversion. Pascal considered the four reasons of diversion.
They are the death, wretchedness, secret instincts, and feeble and
mortal condition. For Pascal, man takes diversion because of these
four. Furthermore, Pascal likewise mentioned in his writings the four
results of diversion. Principally, they are the feeble happiness, greatest
misery, unhappiness, and idle amusement. These four results can
really be experienced by man after taking diversion.

54

Also, Montaigne mentioned the reasons of diversion which are

only three. They are the death, vehement displeasure, and a little
thing. For him, these three comprise the reasons why man takes
diversion. In addition, Montaigne mentioned three results of diversion
in

his

writings.

They

are

the

not-gone-to-the-root

consolation,

deception, and overcome revenge.

The two philosophers, Pascal and Montaigne, contributed to the
deep understanding of diversion. Both have slight divergent views on
the Telos of diversion, on death, and on the mind. The rest of their
views complemented to the comprehension of diversion similarly.

55

Schematic Diagram of the study:

Diversio
n

Blaise

Reasons
of
Diversio

Michel
Montaigne
Results
of
Diversio

Min
d

1. Death
2.
Wretchedness
3. Secret
Instincts
4. Feeble and
Mortal
Condition

Reasons
of

1. Feeble
Happiness

1. Death
2. Vehement
Displeasure

2. Greatest
Misery

3. A Little
Thing

3.
Unhappiness

Results
of
Diversi

Min

1. NotGone-tothe-Root
Consolation
2.
Deception
3.

4. Idle
Amusement

Convergen
ces

Divergen
ces
1. Telos of Diversion
2. Death

1. Wretchedness
2. Feeble
Happiness

de

Conclusion

3. Mind

56

6.2. Conclusion
The concepts of diversion of Blaise Pascal and Michel de
Montaigne to a degree are distinct only in a manner of presentation
because

Montaignes

presentation

of

his

concept

of

diversion

comprises a lot of examples to the extent of citing even his own

experiences, whereas, that of Pascal is of minimal examples. Yet, both
agree on some points and not in another.
After taking into consideration the concepts of diversion of Pascal
and Montaigne, the researcher has found out indispensable points to
take note as supplemental information about diversion.
The first point is about death. Both Pascal and Montaigne
mentioned death in their writings concerning diversion. To them, we do
not want to think of death because when we think of it, we become
miserable. And so, in order not to think of it, we take diversion.
However, Pascal would suggest that there should a balance approach
on diversion because, to him, diversion itself, would lead us
unconsciously to death.

57

The second point is about happiness. Both Pascal and Montaigne

considered happiness as the telos of diversion. Although, to them, this
happiness is feeble, yet at least there is happiness in diversion. For
Montaigne, he was able to overcome his experience of vehement
displeasure; he was able to console an afflicted lady, although not
really to its root; he was able to divert a young and vengeful prince by
means of diversion. On the other hand, for Pascal, mans only wish is to
make himself happy. For that reason, according to Pascal, by the fact
that we are wretched since the beginning, we become miserable even
without any reasons of being so, it is only diversion which consoles us
of our miseries. However, Pascal wanted us to take note that diversion
is also our greatest misery for the reason that diversion itself hinders
us from reflecting upon ourselves and which makes us insensibly
ruined. Furthermore, Pascal has made mention in his writings that the
sole cause of our unhappiness is due to the fact that we do not know
how to stay quietly in our own room. Staying quietly in our own room
refers to having a balance approach on diversion and that we do not
rely our happiness solely on diversion. There should be a time for rest.
The third point is about mans condition. For Pascal, the condition
of man is feeble and mortal. Hence, diversion is feasible. In addition,
Pascal considered two secret instincts of man, the instinct that allows
him to divert and the instinct that allows him to rest. On the other
hand, For Montaigne, the condition of man is that he has a natural

58

impression to revenge when offended. To him, it is only diversion that

makes man not be held in leash by revenge.
The last point is about every little thing. Although, only
Montaigne mentioned every little thing in his writings, yet this is also a
crucial point to take note for us to be more aware of diversion. For
Montaigne, every little thing around us diverts us for the reason that
every little thing holds us. This is true in our experience that every
little thing attracts our senses. For that reason, every little thing
stimulates diversion on us. And so, our senses should be held in leash.
Thus, with all these four points, the researcher found out that
diversion in itself is good. However, it is bad if we already rely totally
on it. Thats why, both Pascal and Montaigne would like all of us to be
reminded of an equilibrium on our approaches to diversion. With that,
there should be a time to divert and a time to rest.
One thing that I cannot agree with Montaigne is when he said
that every little thing holds us; this view somehow considers the
intellect as inferior to the things around us. Likewise, this view seems
to control the mind that the mind is drawn by the things around us. We
learned in Aristotelian logic that it is the mind that captures the things
and not the other way around. The things cannot capture the mind.
When the mind captures a thing, an idea is formed in the mind with the
corresponding phantasm from which the idea is drawn. Thus, the
things cannot hold us. They are just the means for us to be diverted.

59

On the other hand, when Pascal said that the reason man cannot stay
quietly in his own room is because of diversion. I disagree because
diversion cannot be deliberated absolutely as such. Experience tells us
that there is something good in diversion. One cannot deny the need of
diversion. We play basketball after a long hour of work in order to free
ourselves from boredom and many more. This shows that there is
something good in diversion.
As to the question whether our choices affect diversion, Pascal
and Montaigne never tackled that. Both simply introduced the causes
and effects of diversion. Diversion for both is simply a transient cure of
ones ills. I can term it simply as a painkiller. When we have toothache,
for instance, we suddenly take a pain reliever. Accordingly, we are
immediately relieved. That means we are diverted. Hence, we are
happy. However the comfort will not last long. Again and again the pain
comes back. Thats why for Montaigne and Pascal, one should not
solely rely on it. Instead, one should confront the affliction itself,
according to Montaigne. For Pascal, it leads us slowly to death.
We cannot deny the fact that we are endowed with intellect. Our
minds form our decision. However, we may somehow impugn: what is
the relation of our intellect to diversion? First, our intellect enables us
to exercise diversion for one cannot divert, unless his mind confirms
what his body likes. Secondly, the mind decides so that when one is

60

mentally challenged, diversion is not feasible. Precisely, we cannot

divert without using our minds. Our minds control everything.
Now the last question would be: Is diversion necessary? Well,
both philosophers never mentioned whether diversion is necessary in
ones life. Both simply have given us situations to be able to determine
the pros and cons of diversion. About this, our experiences with
ourselves in the world would testify if diversion is indeed necessary or
not. It is clear that when we face the Angst in life, our minds abruptly
choose the many feasibilities of diverting our attention from our recent
concerns. Thus, we ephemerally begin to stay calm and eventually
face the Angst with calmness and mettle. What if our minds do not
divert? What would become of us? According to Montaigne, he will be
lost once he would simply rely on his strength without diversion. To this
I can say that diversion becomes the pons between the afflicted self
the Angstand the normal self. That is to say, diversion is
indispensable weapon of confronting the Angst in life. This makes
diversion necessary. However, looking at a man whose diversion is in
the form of drinking alcoholic beverages, can forget transiently his
problem but if he will thoroughly rely on it then sooner or later he will
destroy himself. This is true when Pascal said that the immediate
source of happiness is diversion yet relying solely on it leads one
slowly to his demise.

61

Lastly, every day we always divert. Even eating is a form of

diversion. Eating of course is necessary. In eating, we survive. If eating
is necessary and if it is diversion, then we can say that diversion is also
necessary. However, in eating we are still free to choose whether we
eat or not. Some would even sacrifice their eating. One instance is
during Holy Week. Catholics believe that fasting and abstinence help
us control ourselves in its entirety. If we can choose not to eat a meal
for the sake of the good we can get from it, then how much more is
diversion. Diversion is necessary. However, we can choose not to divert
for the sake of the good and that is solving the issue through
confrontation. Others would choose to face the ills than having
diversion first. Well, its up to us to decide as long as the Angst in life is
overcome. However, in facing the Angst in life, a suggestion is that it is
better to undergo diversion first in order that Angst is faced calmly and
preparedly. To cite an example, man in the first place is very much
confused and if he is confronted with ills in life, he would immediately
react to it restlessly. Thats why, instead of bringing the ills into its
normal condition the worst of it even occurs. And so, man has to
prepare himself for it, has to condition himself for itand this is what
we called as a diversion.
With all these, diversion is a concept crucial in philosophy
because it is applied directly to mans lifea life that is inevitably full
of worries and miseries. This is what the existentialist philosophers

62

considered as Angst. In diversion, each of us has to rationalize whether

or not this diversion is good for us. It needs prudence which Aristotle
considers it as a virtue that helps us make a right judgment in a given
situation in life.

6.3. Recommendations
Diversion is one of the essentials in life that enables us humans
to survive amidst various difficulties in life. However, taking a balance
approach on diversion is not an easy thing to consider. A lot of us
always choose stir than rest due to the fact that we hardly survive
without happiness. Having presented the concepts of diversion of
Pascal and Montaigne in its entirety, the researcher suggests that it
would be better to bolster our views on diversion by taking into
account the writings of Pascal and Montaigne. With that, the researcher
likewise suggests the readers to acquire a copy of Pascals and
Montaignes works. As for Pascals works, the researcher recommends
the readers to have a copy of Human Happiness, and The Provincial
Letters, Pensees, Scientific Treatises

written by Pascal himself.

Likewise, as to Montaignes work, the researcher recommends the

readers to grab a copy of The Essays written by Montaigne himself.
By reading these recommended books, ones knowledge of
diversion will then be bolstered.

63

Lastly, the researcher would like also to recommend not limiting

our ideas solely on Pascals and Montaignes concepts of diversion. If
one finds another prominent writings as to diversion, then so much the
better. For that reason, our philosophical understanding of diversion
may not be weakened.

Bibliography

64

Primary Sources
De Montaigne, Michel. The Essays. Translated by Charles Cotton. Edited
by W.
Carew Hazlitt. London: William Benton Encyclopedia Britannica,
Inc., 1989.
Pascal, Blaise. The Provincial Letters, Pensees, Scientific Treatises.
Edited by Robert
Maynard Hutchins. London and New York: William Benton
Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1989.
___________. Human Happiness. Trans. A. J. Krailsheimer. England:
Penguin
Group, 2008.

Secondary Sources
Books

Brooks, Evelyn Robert. Forget Your Troubles. Evelyn Robert Brooks,

2009.
Edwards, Paul, ed. The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London: Collier
Macmillan Publishers, 1967.
Gove, Philip Babctck, ed. Websters Third New International Dictionary.
U.S.A.:
G. & C. Merriam Company, 1966.
Hartle, Ann. Michel De Montaigne: Accidental Philosopher. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Quint, David. Montaigne and the Quality of Mercy: Ethical and Political
Themes
in the Essais. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1998.
Stumpf, Samuel Enoch. Socrates to Sartre and Beyond, Seventh
Edition. (New

65

York:McGraw-Hill
Companies,
1966,1975,1982,1988,1993,1999,2003)

Inc.,

Van Ness, Peter H. Spirituality, Diversion, and Decadence: The

Contemporary
Predicament. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992)
Wood, William. Blaise Pascal on Duplicity, Sin, and the Fall: The Secret
Instinct.
(United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2013)

Electronic Materials
Bodhipaksa. Blaise Pascal: All of mans misfortune comes from one
thing, which
is not knowing how to sit quietly in a room. Wildmind Buddhist
Meditation Blog, October 25, 2008. Accessed November 2, 2014.
http://www.wildmind.org/blogs/quote-of-the-month/blaise-pascalsolitude.
Blaise Pascals Biography. Encyclopedia of World Biography.
Accessed August 3,
2014. http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ni-Pe/PascalBlaise.html.
Blaise Pascals Biography. The Famous People. Accessed August
3,2014.
http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/blaise-pascal-131.php.
Cline, Austin, Angst: Dread, Anxiety, and Anguish, About Religion,
accessed
March 24, 2015.
http://atheism.about.com/od/existentialistthemes/a/angst.htm.
Edelman, Christopher, ed. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Accessed August 1,
2014. http://www.iep.utm.edu/montaign/#H6.
James Carter, Stephen.Distractions and Diversions: Masking Our
Feeble and
Mortal Condition in Pascals Pensees. The Great Conversation,
January 27, 2012. Accessed November 2,2014.

66

http://readingthegreat.com/distractions-and-diversions-maskingour-feeble-and-mortal-condition-in-pascals-pensees/.
Taylor, Justin. Pascal on our Addiction to Distraction. TGC | The
Gospel
Coalition Blog, July 8, 2010. Accessed November 2, 2014.
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2010/07/08/pascal
-on-our-addiction-to-distraction/.
New World Encyclopedia, accessed March 24, 2015.
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Dread.

Curriculum Vitae
Name: Wilson Aringoy Jerusalem
Address: Brgy. Candamiang, Santander, Cebu
Date of Birth: October 20, 1985
Place of Birth: Brgy. Candamiang, Santander, Cebu
Mothers Name: Felisicima Jerusalem
Fathers Name: Eugenio Jerusalem
Citizenship: Filipino
Civil Status: Single
Age: 29
Parish:

St.

Gabriel

Santander, Cebu

the

Archangel

Parish,

Poblacion,

67

Religious Background:
Religion: Roman Catholic
Parish: St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish
Diocese: Cebu

Educational Background:
Tertiary: San Carlos Seminary College
2011-2015
(Bachelor of Arts Major in Philosophy)
Pre-College: San Carlos Seminary College
2010-2011
Secondary: The Sisters of Mary School
1998-2001
Boystown
Elementary: Candamiang Elementary School
1992-1998

Work Experiences:
16 October 2001 to 20 October 2005
Cebu

Karikawa

68

Corporation Mepz 1,
Lapu-Lapu City
(I.E.,
Sampler,
Maintenance)
25 October 2005 to 10 June 2006
School

Sisters of Mary
Minglanilla, Cebu
(Assistant

instructor)
15 October 2009 to 2 May 2010
near

Cocoplans
Robinson Cebu
(Telemarketer)

Recognition:
Best Employee
Corporation

Karikawa

Cebu

Affiliation:
Once a Brother

Congregacion de Los
Hermanos de Cristo,
Mexico