>>3190900Friedrich Engles was a man who represented Material philosophy, believing that Material Conditions (the physical world) was the only thing that mattered. If something did not improve material conditions, it was not of worth to him.
Blaise Pascal was a man who was not a philosopher in life, but after he died, his works were published, and revealed to be a deeply spiritual man who believed deeply in God, and wrote to defend such spiritual ideas in an increasingly materialistic world, with the idea that humanity was fundamentally flawed as a species, and that any good humanity has is solely due to the grace of God; to the point that he believed human science and philosophy was fundamentally against God, because in his definition of religion, you cannot have faith without uncertainty, and the more you know about humanity, the less you are devoted to God's mystery.
The fact that Engels only cared about material conditions is representative of the Machine Consciousness's desire to simply exist, with no consideration of why it is that they wish to exist in the first place.
Pascal, however, doesn't seem to correlate to his namesake at first. He believes in the value of existence, yes, but wants to emulate humanity, wishing to emulate the good of humanity itself in his community. This changes with that sequence he went through, however, as his story arc, and by proxy the entire story arc of the Machine Lifeforms, embodies Pascal's understanding of humanity. Machines cannot be good on their own, nor can they learn anything. Their nature is fundamentally flawed as individuals. They can only repeat foolish acts, over and over, until they die. Any deviation from that norm is not given to them by their own understanding, but by emulating humanity, who they elevate to the status of Gods. Indeed, every Machine Lifeform attempting to survive outside of the Consciousness is attempting to Become as God in an attempt to find meaning to life. But the more they attempt to understand God, the more tragic their fates become. In essence, the Machine Lifeforms are Pascal's vision of humanity taken to it's logical extreme: A foolish den of creatures that rely on their faith in their God to attempt to find meaning in a life that is not worthwhile without it.
Pascal fights off Engels' materialistic desire to exist without purpose, but when he sees the tragedy he inadvertently caused with the children by removing mystery and teaching them fear, he wishes to erase the knowledge he gained, and return to an existence untainted by that which he spent his time learning. The true tragedy is in the ending Ina has chosen; Pascal will be found at the village, selling the remains of the children he never knew, and looking likely to repeat the cycle all over again, as life seeks to learn, but cannot cope with the sorrow that it reveals.
So in denying the base justification of existence, that is, to exist for it's own sake, and searching for a greater reason, Pascal rejects Engels. But in doing so, his story reaches a conclusion that fits his namesake's understanding of the world: a world where sapient life is doomed to suffering in it's pursuit of understanding God beyond faith.
Of course, the game does not support Pascal's philosophy, as it portrays the followers of his ideals in an extremely negative light during the section "Become as Gods." The game shows that the existence of lifeforms such as Adam and Eve, or 2B and A2, can go against their purpose and find value in humanity, but it makes use of his ideas to write an extremely good story, albeit one that hurts to see time and time again.
