Blaise Pascal

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Blaise Pascal

"We arrive at truth, not by reason only, but also by the heart"(1) said Blaise Pascal, one of the greatest minds of the 17th Century. The 17th Century was the time of the scientific revolution. During this period the main idea for everyone, was to question everything not to just listen to what is told. This caused a transformation in thought in both religious and scientific areas. Science allowed the questioning of the teachings of the old church. Scientists battled with ideas in math and physics, while philosophers battled with ideas of God. It was an intellectual revolution concerning the methods for determining humanity's place in the universe. Blaise Pascal was a physicist, a mathematician, and a man of God. He was a Renaissance man of the scientific revolution.

On June 19, 1623, Pascal was born in the small town of Clermont-Ferrand, France, to Antoinette and Etienne Pascal. When Pascal was just three his mother passed away. After this, Etienne Pascal moved Blaise and his two sisters to Paris, France. Here his son would be able to learn.

Etienne Pascal was very concerned about his son becoming an educated man. This is why he decided to teach his son on his own. He brought a young Blaise to lectures and other gatherings. He decided Blaise would not study math until age 15. When he made this decision he took all the math books out of the family home; however, this did not stop a curious Pascal. At age twelve, he started to work on geometry by himself. Blaise’s father finally started to take him to mathematical gatherings at "Academic Parisienne." At the age of 16, Pascal began to play an active role in "Academic Parisienne," as the principal disciple of Girard Desargues, one of the heads of "Academic Par...

... middle of paper ...

... Pascal was such a brilliant man because he could do both of these. Pascal was one of the only men that wrote about his beliefs in God and was an accredited scientist and mathematician too. He was a true man of the scientific revolution.

Endnotes:

- Pascal, Blaise. 1910. Pascal's Pensées. Translated by W. F. Trotter. New York: The

Modern Library, 1941.

- Rose, N. Mathematical Maxims and Minims. Raleigh NC: 1988.

- Same as 1.

- Gillispie, Charles Coulston. Dictionary of scientific biography. New York: Scribner,

[1970-1990].

- Auden, W. H. and Kronenberger, Louis. The Viking Book of Aphorisms. New York: Viking

Press, 1966.

Work Cited

Hazelton, Roger. Blaise Pascal The Genius of Thought. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1974.

Eliot, Charles W. The Harvard Classics (Pascal). New York: P. F. Collier & Son Corporation, 1938.

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