A mathematical genius, a philosopher, and a devout Christian,
Blaise Pascal’s notions of free will and personal responsibility were complicated
by his sense of faith and duty.
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’s Wager
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Blaise Pascal is best known as a mathematician and
scientist, but he dedicated the later half of his life to religious study
and philosophy. As a mathematician, Pascal is credited with the modern
theory of probability, the properties of the cycloid, and advancements
in differential calculus. His experiments with fluids and their tendencies
toward equilibrium led to the hydraulic press.
It is possible to make a comparison between Pascal
and Edmund Husserl. Both men were dedicated to mathematics
and formal logic. However, their logical studies led to philosophical
questions about the nature of existence. As a young man Pascal came under
Jansenist influence. At the age of 30 or 31, Pascal experienced a religious
awakening. In 1654 he entered the convent/monastery at Port-Royal, devoting
his attention primarily to religious writing. His works include Provincial
Letters, a defense of the Jansenists; and the Pensées,
which preach the necessity of mystic faith in understanding the universe.
Pascal's philosophy is a also forerunner of Kierkegaard's.
Pascal concluded that faith is not logical, in much the same way that
Kierkegaard concluded that religion was a "leap of faith" requiring
pure devotion. For Pascal, this philosophy was the result of a lifetime
dedicated to science that could not explain his own religious faith.
The most famous of Pascal's attempts to explain his
religious commitment was Pascal's Razor. Paraphrased, Pascal stated
that it made more sense to believe in God, in case He existed, than to
deny the existence of God and risk the consequences. The difficulty in
this argument is that it makes it possible to argue that one should believe
in all religions, as that would lower the potential risks of an afterlife
considerably.
| 1623 |
Born |
| 1642 |
Invents a simple adding machine to assist his father, a tax collector. |
| 1654 |
Enters the convent/monastery at Port-Royal and dedicates his life
to religious meditations and writings. |
| 1662 |
Dies. |
| 1670 |
Pensées published posthumously. |
Works
- Provincial Letters, Essays: 1656
- Pensées, Aphorisms: 1670
We run heedlessly into the abyss after putting something in front of us
to stop us seeing it. Pensées
Man finds nothing so intolerable as to be in a state of complete rest,
without passions, without occupation, without diversion, without effort.
Then he feels his nullity, loneliness, inadequacy, dependence, helplessness,
emptiness. Pensées
Man is only a reed, the weakest in nature; but he is a thinking reed.
There is no need for the whole universe to take up arms to crush him: a
vapor, a drop of water is enough to kill him. But even if the universe
were to crush him, man would still be nobler than his slayer, because he
knows that he is dying and the advantage the universe has over him. The
universe knows nothing of this. Pensées
It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. That is what faith
is: God perceived by the heart, not by the reason. Pensées
Men never do evil so fully and cheerfully as when we do it out of conscience. Pensées
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