A lexicological approach of self-love in Pascal’s writings: letter (1651) about his father’s death, frag. La 978 and nine occurrences in the Pensées. From the different "self-loves" enumerated by the tradition, Adam’s natural self-love, before the Fall, which is indifferent for Thomas Aquinas, is identified by Jansenius as perverted into concupiscentia. In his Apology, Pascal follows the Jansenist line, in such a radical way that the Port-Royal theologians found necessary to mitigate his feelings, up to contradict him, like Nicole did, who described self-love as a hypocritical substitute to virtuous behaviour.
Pascal; Jansenius; Self-Love; Concupiscence