Blaise Pascal"All men's miseries derive from not being able
to sit in a quiet room alone."
Blaise Pascal lived only 39 short years but made an enormous contribution to many fields of study during his life. He began as a math prodigy who, at the age of only 16, constructed what is now known as “Pascal’s Theorem” and describes the geometry of conic sections, also known as "The Treatise of the Mystic Hexagram." He went on to make other important contributions to the fields of calculus, the physical sciences, economics and literature. His most notable work of philosophy was titled Pensees, which literally translates as “Thoughts”. In it, he famously wrote;
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His most famous philosophical treatise is likely to be “Pascal’s Wager” which explains how the simple laws of probability necessitate, even to the most hardened gambler, that a person should obviously make the decision to behave morally in their life. When staring into a 50% chance of life-after-death, the risk of suffering eternal damnation is simply not worth the odds for a few years of “immoral fun." Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists. Pascal also wrote The Lettres Provinciales (Provincial letters), which were meant as a witty mockery of the existing institutions in France during the 1600’s. Letter XVI contains the famous quote, "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time." Louis XIV banned the book and ordered it shredded and burned. Voltaire later commented on its greatness and said,
At the age of 31, Pascal’s burdgeoning career took an unpredictable turn when he reported a transformative mystical experience which was to alter the remainder of his life. He was involved in a bizarre accident in which the horses pulling his carriage plunged over the parapet of a bridge. Oddly enough, his carriage hung halfway over the edge and held him in a state of near death. Utterly shocked by this experience, the highly sensitive philosopher fainted and remained unconscious for some time. Upon his recovery, he recorded the experience on a piece of cloth and sewed it into the interior of his coat fabric to be worn for the remainder of his days. The words read as follows and are now known as “The Memorial”.
After his conversion, Pascal renounced his “self-serving” activities which included both mathematics and physics. He devoted the remainder of his life to the worship and service of God and retired to a monastery. References
Pascal, Blaise, (1997), The Provincial Letters, Wipf & Stock Publishers Pascal, Blaise, (1995), Pensees, Penguin Classics |