From: Tony Kan (tony.kan_at_clear.net.nz)
Date: Wed Jul 27 2005 - 06:53:35 PDT
URL: http://www.stillnewt.org/library/nonfiction/
Title: Pensees
Author: Pascal, Blaise
Published: 1670
Format: Newton MP2x00 Portrait
Introduction: [below]
Pascal, Blaise (1623-1662), French philosopher, mathematician, and
physicist, considered one of the great minds in Western intellectual
history. Inventor of the first mechanical adding machine.
Blaise Pascal was born in Clermont-Ferrand on June 19, 1623, and his family
settled in Paris in 1629. Under the tutelage of his father, Pascal soon
proved himself a mathematical prodigy, and at the age of 16 he formulated
one of the basic theorems of projective geometry, known as Pascal's theorem
and described in his Essai pour les coniques (Essay on Conics, 1639). In
1642 he invented the first mechanical adding machine. Pascal proved by
experimentation in 1648 that the level of the mercury column in a barometer
is determined by an increase or decrease in the surrounding atmospheric
pressure rather than by a vacuum, as previously believed. This discovery
verified the hypothesis of the Italian physicist Evangelista Torricelli
concerning the effect of atmospheric pressure on the equilibrium of liquids.
Six years later, in conjunction with the French mathematician Pierre de
Fermat, Pascal formulated the mathematical theory of probability, which has
become important in such fields as actuarial, mathematical, and social
statistics and as a fundamental element in the calculations of modern
theoretical physics. Pascal's other important scientific contributions
include the derivation of Pascal's law or principle, which states that
fluids transmit pressures equally in all directions, and his investigations
in the geometry of infinitesimal. His methodology reflected his emphasis on
empirical experimentation as opposed to analytical, a priori methods, and he
believed that human progress is perpetuated by the accumulation of
scientific discoveries resulting from such experimentation.
Pascal's final important work was Pensées sur la religion et sur quelques
autres sujets (Thoughts on Religion and on Other Subjects), also published
in 1670. In the Pensées Pascal attempted to explain and justify the
difficulties of human life by the doctrine of original sin, and he contended
that revelation can be comprehended only by faith, which in turn is
justified by revelation. Pascal's writings urging acceptance of the
Christian life contain frequent applications of the calculations of
probability; he reasoned that the value of eternal happiness is infinite and
that although the probability of gaining such happiness by religion may be
small it is infinitely greater than by any other course of human conduct or
belief.
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