Blaise Pascal , (June 19, 1623, in
Clermont-FerrandClermont-Ferrand is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne region, with a population of 140,700 . Its metropolitan area had 409,558 inhabitants at the 1999 census....
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
– August 19, 1662, in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
) was a French
mathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with particular problems related to logic, space, transformations, numbers and more general ideas which encompass these concepts...
,
physicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
, and
religiousA religion is a system of human thought which usually includes a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs and practices that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power, deity or deities, or ultimate truth...
philosopher. He was a
child prodigyA child prodigy is someone who at an early age masters one or more skills at an adult level. One heuristic for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 15 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding field of endeavor...
who was educated by his father, a
civil servantThe term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied
scienceScience is in its broadest sense to any systematic knowledge-base or prescriptive practice that is capable of resulting in a prediction or predictable type of outcome...
s where he made important contributions to the construction of mechanical
calculatorA calculator is a device that is used for performing mathematical calculations. It differs from a computer by having a limited problem solving ability and an interface optimized for interactive calculation rather than programming...
s, the study of
fluidA fluid is a substance that continually deforms under an applied shear stress. All gases are fluids, but not all liquids are fluids. Fluids are a subset of the phases of matter and include liquids, gases, plasmas and, to some extent, plastic solids....
s, and clarified the concepts of
pressurePressure is the force per unit area applied in a direction perpendicular to the surface of an object. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the local atmospheric or ambient pressure.- Definition :...
and
vacuumIn everyday usage, vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty," but in reality, no volume of space can ever be perfectly empty...
by generalizing the work of
Evangelista TorricelliEvangelista Torricelli was an Italian physicist and mathematician, best known for his invention of the barometer.-Biography:Torricelli was born in Faenza, then part of the Papal States...
. Pascal also wrote in defense of the
scientific methodScientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific...
.
Pascal was a mathematician of the first order. He helped create two major new areas of research. He wrote a significant treatise on the subject of
projective geometryIn mathematics, projective geometry is the study of geometric properties which are invariant under projective transformations. The field of projective geometry is itself divided into many subfields, two examples of which are projective algebraic geometry and projective differential geometry In...
at the age of sixteen, and later corresponded with
Pierre de FermatPierre de Fermat was a French lawyer at the Parlement of Toulouse, France, and an amateur mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to modern calculus...
on
probability theoryProbability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with analysis of random phenomena. The central objects of probability theory are random variables, stochastic processes, and events: mathematical abstractions of non-deterministic events or measured quantities that may either be single...
, strongly influencing the development of modern
economicsEconomics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
and
social scienceThe social sciences are the fields of scientific knowledge and academic scholarship that study social groups and, more generally, human society. The social sciences initially were constituted of five fields: Jurisprudence and Amendment of the Law; Education; Health; Economy and Trade; Art...
. Following Galileo and Torricelli, in 1646 he refuted
Aristotle'sAristotle was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology.Together with Plato and Socrates , Aristotle is one of...
followers who insisted that nature abhors a vacuum. His results caused many disputes before being accepted.
In 1646, he and his sister Jacqueline identified with the religious movement within
CatholicismCatholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole...
known by its detractors as
JansenismJansenism was a branch of Catholic thought that arose in the frame of the Counter-Reformation and the aftermath of the Council of Trent . It emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination...
. His father died in 1651. Following a
mysticalMysticism is the pursuit of communion with, identity with, or conscious awareness of an ultimate reality, divinity, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, instinct or insight. Mysticism usually centers on a practice or practices intended to nurture those experiences or...
experience in late 1654, he had his "second conversion", abandoned his scientific work, and devoted himself to philosophy and
theologyThe term "theology" literally means the study of God, deriving from the Greek word theos, meaning 'God', and the suffix -ology from the Greek word logos meaning "discourse", "theory", or "reasoning"...
. His two most famous works date from this period: the
Lettres provincialesThe Lettres provinciales are a series of eighteen letters written by French philosopher and theologian Blaise Pascal under the pseudonym Louis de Montalte...
and the
PenséesThe Pensées represented a defense of the Christian religion by Blaise Pascal, the renowned 17th century philosopher and mathematician. Pascal's religious conversion led him into a life of asceticism, and the Pensées was in many ways his life's work."Pascal's Wager" is found here...
, the former set in the conflict between Jansenists and Jesuits. In this year, he also wrote an important treatise on the arithmetic of triangles. Between 1658 and 1659 he wrote on the
cycloidA cycloid is the curve defined by the path of a point on the edge of circular wheel as the wheel rolls along a straight line.It is an example of a roulette, a curve generated by a curve rolling on another curve....
and its use in calculating the volume of solids.
Pascal had poor
healthAt the of the creation of the World Health Organization , in 1948, Health was defined as being "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity"....
throughout his life and his death came just two months after his 39th birthday.
Early life and education
Pascal lost his mother, Antoinette Begon, at the age of three. His father,
Étienne PascalÉtienne Pascal was the father of Blaise Pascal. He also had three daughters, two of whom survived past childhood: Gilberte and Jacqueline . His wife Antoinette Begon died in 1626....
(1588–1651), who also had an interest in science and mathematics, was a local judge and member of the "
Noblesse de RobeUnder the Old Regime, the Nobles of the Robe or Nobles of the Gown were French aristocrats who owed their titles and rank to judicial or administrative posts — often bought outright for high sums. These positions were often hereditary and most Nobles of the Robe had inherited their title and...
". Pascal had two sisters, the younger
JacquelineJacqueline Pascal , sister of Blaise Pascal, was born at Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne, France.She was a prodigy, composing verses when only eight years old, and a five-act comedy at eleven. In 1646 the influence of her brother converted her to Jansenism...
and the elder Gilberte.
In 1631, after the death of his wife, Étienne Pascal moved with his children to
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. The newly arrived family soon hired Louise Delfault, a maid who eventually became an instrumental member of the family. Étienne, who never remarried, decided that he alone would educate his children, for they all showed extraordinary intellectual ability, particularly his son Blaise. The young Pascal showed an amazing aptitude for mathematics and science. At the age of eleven, he composed a short treatise on the sounds of vibrating bodies, and Étienne responded by forbidding his son to further pursue mathematics until the age of fifteen so as not to harm his study of
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
and
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
. One day, however, Étienne found Blaise (now twelve) writing an independent proof that the sum of the
angleIn geometry and trigonometry, an angle is the figure formed by two rays sharing a common endpoint, called the vertex of the angle...
s of a
triangleA triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three corners or vertices and three sides or edges which are line segments. A triangle with vertices A, B, and C is denoted ....
is equal to two
right angleIn geometry and trigonometry, a right angle is an angle of 90 degrees, corresponding to a quarter turn . It can be defined as the angle such that twice that angle amounts to a half turn, or 180°....
s with a piece of coal on a wall. From then on, the boy was allowed to study
EuclidEuclid , fl. 300 BC, also known as Euclid of Alexandria, was a Greek mathematician and is often referred to as the "Father of Geometry." He was active in Hellenistic Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy I...
; perhaps more importantly, he was allowed to sit in as a silent on-looker at the gatherings of some of the greatest mathematicians and scientists in Europe—such as
RobervalGilles Personne de Roberval , French mathematician, was born at Roberval, Oise, near Beauvais, France. His name was originally Gilles Personne or Gilles Personier, that of Roberval, by which he is known, being taken from the place of his birth.Like René Descartes, he was present at the siege of La...
, Desargues, Mydorge,
GassendiPierre Gassendi was a French philosopher, priest, scientist, astronomer, and mathematician. With a church position in south-east France, he also spent much time in Paris, where he was a leader of a group of free-thinking intellectuals. He was also an active observational scientist, publishing the...
, and Descartes—in the monastic cell of
Père MersenneMarin Mersenne, Marin Mersennus or le Père Mersenne was a French theologian, philosopher, mathematician and music theorist, often referred to as the "father of acoustics" .-Life:...
.
Particularly of interest to Pascal was a work of Desargues on
conic sectionIn mathematics, a conic section is a curve obtained by intersecting a cone with a plane. In analytic geometry, a conic may be defined as a plane algebraic curve of degree 2...
s. Following Desargues' thinking, the sixteen-year-old Pascal produced, as a means of proof, a short treatise on what was called the "Mystic Hexagram",
Essai pour les coniques ("Essay on Conics") and sent it—his first serious work of mathematics—to
Père MersenneMarin Mersenne, Marin Mersennus or le Père Mersenne was a French theologian, philosopher, mathematician and music theorist, often referred to as the "father of acoustics" .-Life:...
in Paris; it is known still today as
Pascal's theoremIn projective geometry, Pascal's theorem states that if an arbitrary hexagon is inscribed in any conic section, and opposite pairs of sides are extended until they meet, the three intersection points will lie on a straight line, the Pascal line of that configuration.This theorem is a...
. It states that if a hexagon is inscribed in a circle (or conic) then the three intersection points of opposite sides lie on a line (called the Pascal line).
Pascal's work was so precocious that Descartes, when shown the manuscript, refused to believe that the composition was not by the elder Pascal.
When assured by Mersenne that it was, indeed, the product of the son not the father, Descartes dismissed it with a sniff: "I do not find it strange that he has offered demonstrations about conics more appropriate than those of the ancients," adding, "but other matters related to this subject can be proposed that would scarcely occur to a sixteen-year-old child."
In France at that time offices and positions could be—and were—bought and sold. In 1631 Étienne sold his position as second president of the
Cour des AidesThe Cours des aides were among the sovereign courts in Ancien Régime France. They were set up to judge appeal-cases on of extraordinary and ordinary financial matters relating to the chambre du Trésor ....
for 65,665 livres. The money was invested in a
government bondA government bond is a bond issued by a national government denominated in the country's own currency. Bonds issued by national governments in foreign currencies are normally referred to as sovereign bonds. The first ever government bond was issued by the English government in 1693 to raise money...
which provided if not a lavish then certainly a comfortable income which allowed the Pascal family to move to, and enjoy,
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. But in 1638 Richelieu, desperate for money to carry on the Thirty Year War, defaulted on the government's bonds. Suddenly Étienne Pascal's worth had dropped from nearly 66,000 livres to less than 7,300.
Like so many others, Étienne was eventually forced to flee Paris because of his opposition to the fiscal policies of Cardinal Richelieu, leaving his three children in the care of his neighbor Madame Sainctot, a great beauty with an infamous past who kept one of the most glittering and intellectual salons in all France. It was only when Jacqueline performed well in a children's play with Richelieu in attendance that Étienne was pardoned. In time Étienne was back in good graces with the cardinal, and in 1639 had been appointed the king's commissioner of taxes in the city of
RouenRouen is the historical capital city of Normandy, in northern France on the River Seine, and currently the capital of the Haute-Normandie region. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, Rouen was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
— a city whose tax records, thanks to uprisings, were in utter chaos.
In 1642, in an effort to ease his father's endless, exhausting calculations, and recalculations, of taxes owed and paid, Pascal, not yet nineteen, constructed a mechanical calculator capable of addition and subtraction, called
Pascal's calculatorBlaise Pascal invented the first mechanical calculator, called alternatively the Pascalina or the Arithmetique, in 1645, the first being that of Wilhelm Schickard in 1623....
or the Pascaline. The
Musée des Arts et MétiersThe Musée des Arts et Métiers is a museum in Paris that houses the collection of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, which was founded in 1794 as a depository for the preservation of scientific instruments and inventions....
in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and the
Zwinger museumThe Zwinger is a palace in Dresden and a major landmark of German baroque architecture.The location was formerly part of the Dresden fortress of which the outer wall is conserved. The name derives from the German word Zwinger ; it was for the cannons that were placed between the outer wall and the...
in
DresdenDresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, exhibit two of his original mechanical calculators. Though these machines are early forerunners to
computer engineeringComputer Engineering is a discipline that combines both Electronic Engineering and Computer Science. Computer engineers usually have training in electronic engineering, software design and hardware-software integration instead of only software engineering or electronic engineering...
, the calculator failed to be a great commercial success. Because it was extraordinarily expensive the Pascaline became little more than a toy, and
status symbolA status symbol is a perceived visible, external denotation of one's social position and perceived indicator of economic or social status. Many luxury goods are often considered status symbols...
, for the very rich both in France and throughout Europe. However, Pascal continued to make improvements to his design through the next decade and built fifty machines in total.
Contributions to mathematics
Pascal continued to influence mathematics throughout his life. His
Traité du triangle arithmétique ("Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle") of 1653 described a convenient tabular presentation for
binomial coefficientIn mathematics, the binomial coefficient is the coefficient of the x k term in the polynomial expansion of the binomial power n....
s, now called
Pascal's triangleIn mathematics, Pascal's triangle is a geometric arrangement of the binomial coefficients in a triangle. It is named after mathematician Blaise Pascal in much of the Western world, although other mathematicians studied it centuries before him in India, Persia, China, and Italy.The rows of Pascal's...
. The triangle can also be represented:
|
0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
| 0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| 1 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
|
| 2 |
1 |
3 |
6 |
10 |
15 |
|
|
| 3 |
1 |
4 |
10 |
20 |
|
|
|
| 4 |
1 |
5 |
15 |
|
|
|
|
| 5 |
1 |
6 |
|
|
|
|
|
| 6 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
He defines the numbers in the triangle by
recursionRecursion, in mathematics and computer science, is a method of defining functions in which the function being defined is applied within its own definition. The term is also used more generally to describe a process of repeating objects in a self-similar way...
: Call the number in the (m+1)st row and (n+1)st column t
mn. Then t
mn = t
m-1,n + t
m,n-1, for m = 0, 1, 2... and n = 0, 1, 2... The boundary conditions are t
m, -1 = 0, t
-1, n for m = 1, 2, 3... and n = 1, 2, 3... The generator t
00 = 1. Pascal concludes with the proof,
In 1654, prompted by a friend interested in gambling problems, he corresponded with Fermat on the subject, and from that collaboration was born the mathematical theory of
probabilitiesProbability is a way of expressing knowledge or belief that an event will occur or has occurred. In mathematics the concept has been given an exact meaning in probability theory, that is used extensively in such areas of study as mathematics, statistics, finance, gambling, science, and philosophy...
. The friend was the Chevalier de Méré, and the specific problem was that of two players who want to finish a game early and, given the current circumstances of the game, want to divide the stakes fairly, based on the chance each has of winning the game from that point. From this discussion, the notion of
expected valueIn probability theory and statistics, the expected value of a random variable is the integral of the random variable with respect to its probability measure....
was introduced. Pascal later (in the
Pensées) used a probabilistic argument,
Pascal's WagerPascal's Wager is a suggestion posed by the French philosopher Blaise Pascal that even though the existence of God cannot be determined through reason, a person should wager as though God exists, because so living has everything to gain, and nothing to lose...
, to justify belief in
GodGod is a deity in theistic and deistic religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
and a virtuous life. The work done by Fermat and Pascal into the calculus of probabilities laid important groundwork for Leibniz' formulation of the
infinitesimal calculusInfinitesimal calculus was independently invented by both Leibniz and Newton in the 1660s, drawing on the work of such mathematicians as Barrow and Descartes...
.
After a religious experience in 1654, Pascal mostly gave up work in mathematics. However, after a sleepless night in 1658, he anonymously offered a prize for the
quadratureIn numerical analysis, numerical integration constitutes a broad family of algorithms for calculating the numerical value of a definite integral, and by extension, the term is also sometimes used to describe the numerical solution of differential equations. This article focuses on calculation of...
of a
cycloidA cycloid is the curve defined by the path of a point on the edge of circular wheel as the wheel rolls along a straight line.It is an example of a roulette, a curve generated by a curve rolling on another curve....
. Solutions were offered by
John WallisJohn Wallis was an English mathematician who is given partial credit for the development of modern calculus. Between 1643 and 1689 he served as chief cryptographer for Parliament and, later, the royal court. He is also credited with introducing the symbol ∞ for infinity...
,
Christiaan HuygensChristiaan Huygens, FRS was a prominent Dutch mathematician, astronomer, physicist, horologist, and writer of early science fiction...
,
Christopher WrenSir Christopher Wren was one of the best known and highest acclaimed English architects in history,...
, and others; Pascal, under the pseudonym Amos Dettonville, published his own solution. Controversy and heated argument followed after Pascal announced himself the winner.
Philosophy of mathematics
Pascal's major contribution to the
philosophy of mathematicsThe philosophy of mathematics is the branch of philosophy that studies the philosophical assumptions, foundations, and implications of mathematics. The aim of the philosophy of mathematics is to provide an account of the nature and methodology of mathematics and to understand the place of...
came with his
De l'Esprit géométrique ("On the Geometrical Spirit"), originally written as a preface to a geometry textbook for one of the famous "
Petites-Ecoles de Port-RoyalThe Petites écoles de Port-Royal was the name given to a teaching system set up in 1637 by the intellectuals who gathered at Port-Royal-des-Champs in the middle of the 17th century at the height of the Jansenist controversy...
" ("Little Schools of Port-Royal"). The work was unpublished until over a century after his death. Here, Pascal looked into the issue of discovering truths, arguing that the ideal of such a method would be to found all propositions on already established truths. At the same time, however, he claimed this was impossible because such established truths would require other truths to back them up—first principles, therefore, cannot be reached. Based on this, Pascal argued that the procedure used in geometry was as perfect as possible, with certain principles assumed and other propositions developed from them. Nevertheless, there was no way to know the assumed principles to be true.
Pascal also used
De l'Esprit géométrique to develop a theory of
definitionA definition is a formal passage describing the meaning of a term . The term to be defined is the definiendum . A term may have many subtly different senses or meanings...
. He distinguished between definitions which are conventional labels defined by the writer and definitions which are within the language and understood by everyone because they naturally designate their referent. The second type would be characteristic of the philosophy of
essentialismIn philosophy, essentialism is the view that, for any specific kind of entity, there is a set of characteristics or properties all of which any entity of that kind must possess, and therefore all things can be precisely defined or described...
. Pascal claimed that only definitions of the first type were important to science and mathematics, arguing that those fields should adopt the philosophy of
formalismThe term formalism describes an emphasis on form over content or meaning in the arts, literature, or philosophy. A practitioner of formalism is called a formalist. A formalist, with respect to some discipline, holds that there is no transcendent meaning to that discipline other than the literal...
as formulated by Descartes.
In
De l'Art de persuader ("On the Art of Persuasion"), Pascal looked deeper into geometry's axiomatic method, specifically the question of how people come to be convinced of the axioms upon which later conclusions are based. Pascal agreed with Montaigne that achieving certainty in these axioms and conclusions through human methods is impossible. He asserted that these principles can only be grasped through intuition, and that this fact underscored the necessity for submission to
GodGod is a deity in theistic and deistic religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
in searching out truths.
Contributions to the physical sciences
Pascal's work in the fields of the study of hydrodynamics and hydrostatics centered on the principles of
hydraulic fluidHydraulic fluids, also called hydraulic liquids, are the medium by which power is transferred in hydraulic machinery. Common hydraulic fluids are based on mineral oil or water...
s. His inventions include the
hydraulic pressA hydraulic press is a hydraulic mechanism for applying a large lifting or compressive force. It is the hydraulic equivalent of a mechanical lever, and is also known as a Bramah press after the inventor, Joseph Bramah, of England. He invented and was issued a patent on this press in 1795...
(using hydraulic pressure to multiply force) and the
syringeA syringe is a simple piston pump consisting of a plunger that fits tightly in a tube. The plunger can be pulled and pushed along inside a cylindrical tube , allowing the syringe to take in and expel a liquid or gas through an orifice at the open end of the tube...
. By 1646, Pascal had learned of
Evangelista Torricelli'sEvangelista Torricelli was an Italian physicist and mathematician, best known for his invention of the barometer.-Biography:Torricelli was born in Faenza, then part of the Papal States...
experimentation with
barometerA barometer is an instrument used to measure atmospheric pressure. It can measure the pressure exerted by the atmosphere by using water, air, or mercury. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather...
s. Having replicated an experiment which involved placing a tube filled with mercury upside down in a bowl of mercury, Pascal questioned what force kept some mercury in the tube and what filled the space above the mercury in the tube. At the time, most scientists contended that, rather than a
vacuumIn everyday usage, vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty," but in reality, no volume of space can ever be perfectly empty...
, some invisible matter was present. This was based on the Aristotelian notion that creation was a thing of substance, whether visible or invisible; and this substance was forever in motion. Furthermore, "Everything that is in motion must be moved by something,"
AristotleAristotle was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology.Together with Plato and Socrates , Aristotle is one of...
declared. Therefore, to the Aristotelian trained scientists of Pascal's time, a vacuum was an impossibility. How so? As proof it was pointed out:
- Light passed through the so-called "vacuum" in the glass tube.
- Aristotle wrote how everything moved, and must be moved by something.
- Therefore, since there had to be an invisible "something" to move the light through the glass tube, there was no vacuum in the tube. Not in the glass tube or anywhere else. Vacuums—the absence of any and everything—were simply an impossibility.
Following more experimentation in this vein, in 1647 Pascal produced
Experiences nouvelles touchant le vide ("New Experiments with the Vacuum"), which detailed basic rules describing to what degree various liquids could be supported by air pressure. It also provided reasons why it was indeed a vacuum above the column of liquid in a barometer tube.
On September 19, 1648, after many months of Pascal's friendly but insistent prodding, Florin Périer, husband of Pascal's elder sister Gilberte, was finally to carry out the fact finding mission vital to Pascal's theory. The account, written by Périer, reads:
"The weather was chancy last Saturday...[but] around five o'clock that morning...the Puy-de-DômePuy-de-Dôme is a department in the center of France named after the famous dormant volcano, the Puy-de-Dôme.-History:...
was visible...so I decided to give it a try. Several important people of the city of ClermontClermont-Ferrand is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne region, with a population of 140,700 . Its metropolitan area had 409,558 inhabitants at the 1999 census....
had asked me to let them know when I would make the ascent...I was delighted to have them with me in this great work...
"...at eight o'clock we met in the gardens of the Minim Fathers, which has the lowest elevation in town....First I poured sixteen pounds of quicksilverMercury , also called quicksilver or hydrargyrum , is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80...
...into a vessel...then took several glass tubes...each four feet long and hermetically sealedA hermetic seal is a seal which, for practical purposes, is considered airtight.The term is often used to describe electronic parts that are designed and intended to secure against the entry of microorganisms and other foreign bodies in order to maintain the proper functioning and reliability of...
at one end and opened at the other...then placed them in the vessel [of quicksilver]...I found the quick silver stood at 26" and 3½ lines above the quicksilver in the vessel...I repeated the experiment two more times while standing in the same spot...[they] produced the same result each time...
"I attached one of the tubes to the vessel and marked the height of the quicksilver and...asked Father Chastin, one of the Minim Brothers...to watch if any changes should occur through the day...Taking the other tube and a portion of the quick silver...I walked to the top of Puy-de-DômePuy-de-Dôme is a department in the center of France named after the famous dormant volcano, the Puy-de-Dôme.-History:...
, about 500 fathoms higher than the monastery, where upon experiment...found that the quicksilver reached a height of only 23" and 2 lines...I repeated the experiment five times with care...each at different points on the summit...found the same height of quicksilver...in each case..."
Pascal replicated the experiment in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
by carrying a barometer up to the top of the bell tower at the church of
Saint-Jacques-de-la-BoucherieSaint-Jacques Tower, the Tour Saint-Jacques, is a monument located in the IVe arrondissement of Paris, France. This 52-m Flamboyant Gothic tower is all that remains of the former church of Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie ....
, a height of about fifty meters. The mercury dropped two lines. These, and other lesser experiments carried out by Pascal, were hailed throughout Europe as establishing the principle and value of the barometer.
In the face of criticism that some invisible matter must exist in Pascal's empty space, Pascal, in his reply to Estienne Noel, gave one of the seventeenth century's major statements on the scientific method: "In order to show that a hypothesis is evident, it does not suffice that all the phenomena follow from it; instead, if it leads to something contrary to a single one of the phenomena, that suffices to establish its falsity." His insistence on the existence of the vacuum also led to conflict with other prominent scientists, including Descartes.
Adult life, religion, philosophy, and literature
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- Blaise Pascal, Pensées #72
Religious conversion
Two basic influences led him to his conversion: sickness and
JansenismJansenism was a branch of Catholic thought that arose in the frame of the Counter-Reformation and the aftermath of the Council of Trent . It emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination...
. From as early as his eighteenth year, Pascal suffered from a nervous ailment that left him hardly a day without pain. In 1647, a paralytic attack so disabled him that he could not move without crutches. His head ached, his bowels burned, his legs and feet were continually cold, and required wearisome aids to circulate the blood; he wore stockings steeped in brandy to warm his feet. Partly to get better medical treatment, he moved to Paris with his sister Jacqueline. His health improved, but his nervous system had been permanently damaged. Henceforth, he was subject to deepening
hypochondriaHypochondriasis refers to an excessive preoccupation or worry about having a serious illness...
, which affected his character and his philosophy. He became irritable, subject to fits of proud and imperious anger, and seldom smiled.
In the winter of 1646, Pascal's 58 year-old father broke his hip when he slipped and fell on an icy street of Rouen; given the man's age and the state of medicine in the 17th century, a
broken hipA hip fracture is a fracture in the proximal end of the femur , near the hip joint.The term "hip fracture" is commonly used to refer to four different fracture patterns and is often due to osteoporosis; in the vast majority of cases, a hip fracture is a fragility fracture due to a fall or minor...
could be a very serious condition, perhaps even fatal. Rouen was home to two of the finest doctors in France: Monsieur Doctor Deslandes and Monsieur Doctor de La Bouteillerie. The elder Pascal "would not let anyone other than these men attend him...It was a good choice, for the old man survived and was able to walk again..." But treatment and rehabilitation took three months, during which time La Bouteillerie and Deslandes had become household guests.
Both men were followers of Jean Guillebert, proponent of a splinter group from the main body of Catholic teaching known as
JansenismJansenism was a branch of Catholic thought that arose in the frame of the Counter-Reformation and the aftermath of the Council of Trent . It emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination...
. This still fairly small sect was making surprising inroads into the French Catholic community at that time. It espoused rigorous Augustinism. Blaise spoke with the doctors frequently, and upon his successful treatment of Étienne, borrowed works by Jansenist authors from them. In this period, Pascal experienced a sort of "first conversion" and began to write on theological subjects in the course of the following year.
Pascal fell away from this initial religious engagement and experienced a few years of what some biographers have called his "worldly period" (1648–54). His father died in 1651 and left his inheritance to Pascal and Jacqueline, of which Pascal acted as her conservator. Jacqueline announced that she would soon become a
postulantA Postulant was originally one who makes a request or demand; hence, a candidate. Its use is now generally restricted to those asking for admission into a monastery or a convent, both before actual admission and for the length of time proceeding their admission into the novitiate...
in the Jansenist convent of
Port-RoyalPort-Royal-des-Champs was a Cistercian convent in Magny-les-Hameaux, in the Vallée de Chevreuse southwest of Paris that launched a number of culturally important institutions.-History:...
. Pascal was deeply affected and very sad, not because of her choice, but because of his chronic poor health; he too needed her.
"Suddenly there was war in the Pascal household. Blaise pleaded with Jacqueline not to leave, but she was adamant. He commanded her to stay, but that didn't work, either. At the heart of this was...Blaise's fear of abandonment...if Jacqueline entered Port-Royal, she would have to leave her inheritance behind...[but] nothing would change her mind."
By the end of October in 1651, a truce had been reached between brother and sister. In return for a healthy annual stipend, Jacqueline signed over her part of the inheritance to her brother. Gilberte had already been given her inheritance in the form of a dowry. In early January, Jacqueline left for Port-Royal. On that day, according to Gilberte concerning her brother, "He retired very sadly to his rooms without seeing Jacqueline, who was waiting in the little parlor..."
In early June of 1653, after what must have seemed like endless badgering from Jacqueline,
Pascal formally signed over the whole of his sister's inheritance to Port-Royal, which, to him, "had begun to smell like a cult." With two-thirds of his father's estate now gone, the 29 year old Pascal was now consigned to genteel poverty.
For a while, Pascal pursued the life of a bachelor. He showed strong interest in one woman while in Auvergne. He referred to her as the "
SapphoSappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the canonical list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life...
of the countryside." During this time, Pascal wrote
Discours sur les passions de l'amour ("Conversation about the Passions of Love") and apparently contemplated marriage — which he was later to describe as "the lowest of the conditions of life permitted to a Christian."
Jacqueline reproached him for his frivolity and prayed for his reform. During visits to his sister at Port-Royal in 1654, he displayed contempt for affairs of the world but was not drawn to God.
Brush with death
In October 1654, Pascal is said to have been involved in an accident at the
Neuilly-sur-SeineNeuilly-sur-Seine is a commune bordering the western limit of the city of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe....
bridge where the horses plunged over the parapet and the carriage nearly followed them. Fortunately, the reins broke and the coach hung halfway over the edge. Pascal and his friends emerged unscathed, but the sensitive philosopher, terrified by the nearness of death, fainted away and remained unconscious for some time. On 23 November 1654, between 10:30 and 12:30 at night, Pascal had an intense
religious visionIn spirituality including religion, visions comprise inspirational renderings, generally of a future state and/or of a mythical being, and are believed to come from a deity, sometimes directly or indirectly via prophets, and serve to inspire or prod believers as part of a revelation or an epiphany...
and immediately recorded the experience in a brief note to himself which began: "Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars…" and concluded by quoting Psalm 119:16: "I will not forget thy word. Amen." He seems to have carefully sewn this document into his coat and always transferred it when he changed clothes; a servant discovered it only by chance after his death. This piece is now known as the
Memorial. The story of the carriage accident as having led to the experience described in the
Memorial is disputed by some scholars.
His belief and religious commitment revitalized, Pascal visited the older of two convents at Port-Royal for a two-week retreat in January 1655. For the next four years, he regularly travelled between Port-Royal and Paris. It was at this point immediately after his conversion when he began writing his first major literary work on religion, the
Provincial Letters
The Provincial Letters
Beginning in 1656, Pascal published his memorable attack on
casuistryCasuistry is an applied ethics term referring to case-based reasoning. Casuistry is used in juridical and ethical discussions of law and ethics, and often is a critique of principle or rule-based reasoning....
, a popular ethical method used by
CatholicThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
thinkers in the early modern period (especially the Jesuits, and in particular
Antonio EscobarAntonio Escobar y Mendoza was a Spanish churchman of illustrious descent.Born in Valladolid, he was educated by the Jesuits, and at the age of fifteen took the habit of that order. He soon became a famous preacher. In addition he was a voluminous writer, and his collected works fill eighty-three...
). Pascal denounced casuistry as the mere use of complex reasoning to justify moral laxity and all sorts of
sinSin is a term used mainly in a religious context to describe an act that violates a moral rule, or the state of having committed such a violation. Commonly, the moral code of conduct is decreed by a divine entity, i.e...
s. His method of framing his arguments was clever: the
Provincial Letters pretended to be the report of a Parisian to a friend in the provinces on the moral and theological issues then exciting the intellectual and religious circles in the capital. Pascal, combining the fervor of a convert with the wit and polish of a man of the world, reached a new level of style in French prose. The 18-letter series was published between 1656 and 1657 under the pseudonym Louis de Montalte and incensed
Louis XIVLouis XIV , popularly known as the Sun King , was King of France and of Navarre His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days, and is the longest documented reign of any European monarch.Louis began personally governing France after the death...
. The king ordered that the book be shredded and burnt in 1660. In 1661, in the midsts of the
formulary controversyThe Formulary Controversy, in 17th century France, pitted the Jansenists against the Jesuits. It gave rise to Blaise Pascal's Lettres Provinciales, the condemnation by the Vatican of Casuistry, and the final dissolution of organised Jansenism.- Context :...
, the Jansenist school at Port-Royal was condemned and closed down; those involved with the school had to sign a 1656
papal bullA Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a pope. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end to authenticate it....
condemning the teachings of Jansen as heretical. The final letter from Pascal, in 1657, had defied the Pope himself, provoking Alexander VII to condemn the letters. But that didn't stop all of educated France from reading them. Even Pope Alexander, while publicly opposing them, nonetheless was persuaded by Pascal's arguments. He condemned "laxism" in the church and ordered a revision of casuistical texts just a few years later (1665–66).
Aside from their religious influence, the
Provincial Letters were popular as a literary work. Pascal's use of humor, mockery, and vicious
satireSatire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods,...
in his arguments made the letters ripe for public consumption, and influenced the prose of later French writers like
VoltaireFrançois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosopher known for his wit and his defense of civil liberties, including both freedom of religion and free trade.Voltaire was a prolific writer and produced works in almost every...
and
Jean-Jacques RousseauJean Jacques Rousseau was a major philosopher, writer, and composer of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, whose political philosophy influenced the French Revolution and the development of modern political and educational thought.His novel, Emile: or, On Education, which he considered his most...
.
Wide praise has been given to the
Provincial Letters.
VoltaireFrançois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosopher known for his wit and his defense of civil liberties, including both freedom of religion and free trade.Voltaire was a prolific writer and produced works in almost every...
called the
Letters "the best-written book that has yet appeared in France." And when Bossuet was asked what book he would rather have written had he not written his own, he answered, the
Provincial Letters of Pascal.
Miracle
When Pascal was back in Paris just after overseeing the publication of the last
Letter, his religion was reinforced by the close association to an apparent miracle in the chapel of the Port-Royal nunnery. His 10-year-old niece, Marguerite Périer, was suffering from a painful
fistulaIn medicine, a fistula is an abnormal connection or passageway between two epithelium-lined organs or vessels that normally do not connect. It is generally a disease condition, but a fistula may be surgically created for therapeutic reasons.-Location of fistulas:Fistulas can develop in various...
lacrymalis that exuded noisome pus through her eyes and nose—an affliction the doctors pronounced hopeless. Then, on March 24, 1657, a believer presented to Port-Royal what he and others claimed to be a thorn from the crown that had tortured Christ. The nuns, in solemn ceremony and singing psalms, placed the thorn on their altar. Each in turn kissed the relic, and one of them, seeing Marguerite among the worshipers, took the thorn and with it touched the girl's sore. That evening, we are told, Marguerite expressed surprise that her eye no longer pained her; her mother was astonished to find no sign of the fistula; a physician, summoned, reported that the discharge and swelling had disappeared. He, not the nuns, spread word of what he termed a miraculous cure. Seven other physicians who had had previous knowledge of Marguerite's fistula signed a statement that in their judgment a miracle had taken place. The diocesan officials investigated, came to the same conclusion, and authorized a
Te DeumThe Te Deum is an Early Christian hymn of praise. The title reflects the opening Latin words, "Tē Deum ", rendered literally as "You, God, "....
Mass in Port-Royal. Crowds of believers came to see and kiss the thorn; all of Catholic Paris acclaimed a miracle. Later, both pro and anti Jansenists used this well-documented miracle to their defense. In 1728,
Pope Benedict XIIIPope Benedict XIII , born Pietro Francesco Orsini, later Vincenzo Maria Orsini, was pope from 1724 until his death. He succeeded Pope Innocent XIII ....
referred to the case as proving that the age of miracles had not passed.
Pascal made himself an armorial emblem of an eye surrounded by a crown of thorns, with the inscription
Scio cui credidi—"I know whom I have believed." His beliefs renewed, he set his mind to write his final, unfinished testament, the
Pensées.
The Pensées
Pascal's most influential theological work, referred to posthumously as the
Pensées ("Thoughts"), was not completed before his death. It was to have been a sustained and coherent examination and defense of the
Christian faithChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
, with the original title
Apologie de la religion Chrétienne ("Defense of the Christian Religion"). What was found upon sifting through his personal items after his death were numerous scraps of paper with isolated thoughts, grouped in a tentative, but telling, order. The first version of the detached notes appeared in print as a book in 1670 titled
Pensées de M. Pascal sur la religion, et sur quelques autres sujets ("Thoughts of M. Pascal on religion, and on some other subjects") and soon thereafter became a classic. One of the Apologies main strategies was to use the contradictory philosophies of
skepticismIn classical philosophy, skepticism is the teachings and the traits of the 'Skeptikoi', a school of philosophers of whom it was said that they 'asserted nothing but only opined.' In this sense, philosophical skepticism, or Pyrrhonism, is the philosophical position that one should suspend...
and
stoicismStoicism was a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early . The stoics considered destructive emotions to be the result of errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not undergo such emotions...
, personalized by Montaigne on one hand, and
EpictetusEpictetus was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He was probably born a slave at Hierapolis, Phrygia , and lived in Rome until his exile to Nicopolis in northwestern Greece, where he lived most of his life and died. His teachings were noted down and published by his pupil Arrian in his Discourses...
on the other, in order to bring the unbeliever to such despair and confusion that he would embrace God. This strategy was deemed quite hazardous by
Pierre NicolePierre Nicole was one of the most distinguished of the French Jansenists.Born in Chartres, he was the son of a provincial barrister...
,
Antoine ArnauldAntoine Arnauld, — le Grand as contemporaries called him, to distinguish him from his father — was a French Roman Catholic theologian, philosopher, and mathematician...
and other friends and scholars of Port-Royal, who were concerned that these fragmentary "thoughts" might lead to skepticism rather than to piety. Henceforth, they concealed the skeptical pieces and modified some of the rest, lest King or Church should take offense for at that time the persecution of Port-Royal had ceased, and the editors were not interested in a renewal of controversy. Not until the nineteenth century were the Pensées
published in their full and authentic text.
Pascal's Pensées
is widely considered to be a masterpiece, and a landmark in French prose. When commenting on one particular section (Thought #72), Sainte-Beuve praised it as the finest pages in the French language. Will DurantWilliam James Durant was a prolific American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for the 11-volume The Story of Civilization, written in collaboration with his wife Ariel and published between 1935 and 1975...
, in his 11-volume, comprehensive The Story of CivilizationThe Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant is an eleven-volume set of books. It was written over a lifetime, and it totals two million words across nearly 10,000 pages. The series is incomplete: in the first book of the series , Mr...
series, hailed it as "the most eloquent book in French prose." In Pensées, Pascal surveys several philosophical paradoxes: infinity and nothing, faith and reason, soul and matter, death and life, meaning and vanity—seemingly arriving at no definitive conclusions besides humility, ignorance, and grace. Rolling these into one he develops
Pascal's WagerPascal's Wager is a suggestion posed by the French philosopher Blaise Pascal that even though the existence of God cannot be determined through reason, a person should wager as though God exists, because so living has everything to gain, and nothing to lose...
.
Last works and death
T. S. EliotThomas Stearns Eliot, OM , was a poet, playwright, and literary critic. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. Among his most famous writings are The Love Song of J...
described him during this phase of his life as "a man of the world among ascetics, and an ascetic among men of the world." Pascal's ascetic lifestyle derived from a belief that it was natural and necessary for man to suffer. In 1659, Pascal, whose health had never been good, fell seriously ill. During his last years, he frequently tried to reject the ministrations of his doctors, saying, "Sickness is the natural state of Christians."
Louis XIV suppressed the Jansenist movement at Port-Royal in 1661. In response, Pascal wrote one of his final works, Écrit sur la signature du formulaire ("Writ on the Signing of the Form"), exhorting the Jansenists not to give in. Later that year, his sister Jacqueline died, which convinced Pascal to cease his polemics on
JansenismJansenism was a branch of Catholic thought that arose in the frame of the Counter-Reformation and the aftermath of the Council of Trent . It emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination...
. Pascal's last major achievement, returning to his mechanical genius, was inaugurating perhaps the first
busA bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. A bus seats a maximum of 8 to 300 passengers...
line, moving passengers within Paris in a carriage with many seats.
In 1662, Pascal's illness became more violent. Aware that his health was fading quickly, he sought a move to the hospital for incurable diseases, but his doctors declared that he was too unstable to be carried. In
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
on August 18, 1662, Pascal went into convulsions and received extreme unction. He died the next morning, his last words being "May God never abandon me," and was buried in the cemetery of
Saint-Étienne-du-MontSaint-Étienne-du-Mont is a church in Paris, located on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève in the Ve arrondissement, near the Panthéon. It contains the shrine of St. Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris....
.
An
autopsyAn autopsy–also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction–is a medical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...
performed after his death revealed grave problems with his stomach and other organs of his abdomen, along with
damage to his brainBrain damage, or acquired brain injury, is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells.-Causes:Brain damage may occur due to a wide range of conditions, illnesses, injuries, and as a result of iatrogenesis...
. Despite the autopsy, the cause of his continual poor health was never precisely determined, though speculation focuses on
tuberculosisTuberculosis is a common and often deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria...
,
stomach cancerStomach or gastric cancer can develop in any part of the stomach and may spread throughout the stomach and to other organs; particularly the esophagus, lungs and the liver. Stomach cancer causes about 800,000 deaths worldwide per year.-Epidemiology:...
, or a combination of the two. The headaches which afflicted Pascal are generally attributed to his brain
lesionA lesion is any abnormal tissue found on or in an organism, usually damaged by disease or trauma. Lesion is derived from the Latin word laesio which means injury.-Causes of lesions:...
.
Legacy
In honor of his scientific contributions, the name Pascal has been given to the
SI unit of pressureThe pascal is the SI derived unit of pressure, stress, Young's modulus and tensile strength. It is a measure of force per unit area, defined as one newton per square metre...
, to a
programming languagePascal is an influential imperative and procedural programming language, designed in 1968/9 and published in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth as a small and efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structuring.A derivative known as Object Pascal...
, and
Pascal's lawIn the physical sciences, Pascal's law or Pascal's principle states that "a change in the pressure of an enclosed incompressible fluid is conveyed undiminished to every part of the fluid and to the surfaces of its container."-Derivation:...
(an important principle of hydrostatics), and as mentioned above, Pascal's triangle and Pascal's wager still bear his name.
Pascal's development of probability theory was his most influential contribution to mathematics. Originally applied to
gamblingGambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods. Typically, the outcome of the wager is evident within a short period....
, today it is extremely important in
economicsEconomics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, especially in
actuarial scienceActuarial science is the discipline that applies mathematical and statistical methods to assess risk in the insurance and finance industries. Actuaries are professionals who are qualified in this field through education and experience...
. John Ross writes, "Probability theory and the discoveries following it changed the way we regard uncertainty, risk, decision-making, and an individual's and society's ability to influence the course of future events." However, it should be noted that Pascal and Fermat, though doing important early work in probability theory, did not develop the field very far.
Christiaan HuygensChristiaan Huygens, FRS was a prominent Dutch mathematician, astronomer, physicist, horologist, and writer of early science fiction...
, learning of the subject from the correspondence of Pascal and Fermat, wrote the first book on the subject. Later figures who continued the development of the theory include
Abraham de MoivreAbraham de Moivre was a French mathematician famous for de Moivre's formula, which links complex numbers and trigonometry, and for his work on the normal distribution and probability theory...
and
Pierre-Simon LaplacePierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace was a French mathematician and astronomer whose work was pivotal to the development of mathematical astronomy and statistics. He summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste...
.
In literature, Pascal is regarded as one of the most important authors of the French Classical Period and is read today as one of the greatest masters of French prose. His use of satire and wit influenced later
polemicPolemics is the practice of disputing or controverting significant, broad-reaching topics of magnitude such as religious, philosophical, political, or scientific matters...
ists. The content of his literary work is best remembered for its strong opposition to the
rationalismIn epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...
of
René DescartesRené Descartes , , also known as Renatus Cartesius , was a French philosopher, mathematician, physicist, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic...
and simultaneous assertion that the main countervailing philosophy,
empiricismIn philosophy, empiricism is a theory of knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from sense experience. Empiricism is one of several competing views about how we know "things," part of the branch of philosophy called epistemology, or "the Theory of Knowledge"...
, was also insufficient for determining major truths.
Works
- Essai pour les coniques (1639)
- Experiences nouvelles touchant le vide (1647)
- Traité du triangle arithmétique (1653)
- Lettres provinciales
The Lettres provinciales are a series of eighteen letters written by French philosopher and theologian Blaise Pascal under the pseudonym Louis de Montalte...
(1656–57)
- De l'Esprit géométrique (1657 or 1658)
- Écrit sur la signature du formulaire (1661)
- Pensées
The Pensées represented a defense of the Christian religion by Blaise Pascal, the renowned 17th century philosopher and mathematician. Pascal's religious conversion led him into a life of asceticism, and the Pensées was in many ways his life's work."Pascal's Wager" is found here...
(incomplete at death)
Miscellany
- In France, prestigious annual awards, Blaise Pascal Chair
The Blaise Pascal Chair, , established in 1996 by the Government of the Île-de-France Region for internationally acclaimed foreign scientists in all disciplines. A scientific committee annually selects the most outstanding candidates from all over the world...
s are given to outstanding international scientists to conduct their research in the Ile de FranceÎle-de-France is one of the twenty-six administrative regions of France, composed mostly of the Paris metropolitan area. Its name literally means "Island of France", maybe from ancient Frankish Liddle Franke, "little France"....
region.
- The University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo is a comprehensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles, and has since grown to an institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff...
, OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
, Canada, holds an annual math contest named in his honour. The Pascal Contest is open to any student from around the world, who is fifteen years or under and is in grade nine or lower.
- Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Rossellini was an Italian film director. Rossellini was one of the directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing films such as Roma città aperta to the movement.-Early life:...
directed a filmed biopic (entitled Blaise Pascal) which originally aired on Italian television in 1971.
- Pascal was a subject for the first edition of the 1984 BBC Two documentary, "The Sea of Faith", presented by Don Cupitt
Don Cupitt is an English philosopher of religion and scholar of Christian theology. He is an Anglican priest and an emeritus professor of the University of Cambridge, though is better known as a popular writer, broadcaster and commentator...
(see Sea of Faith: Television series).
External links