Blaise Pascal
had a great impact on mathematics. He laid the foundations of our
mathematical understanding of probability. A computer programming language was named for
him.
Pascal was also a deeply
religious man and philosopher. His book Pensées is read as a devotional by many Christians. His argument that the belief in God
is rational is widely known.
James A. Connor takes the name of that argument for
the name of his biography of the man, Pascal’s
Wager. Connor considers both Pascal’s life in science and math and his religious
convictions.
For many, there is no
conflict in scientific study and religious devotion, but there was for Pascal.
He was a Jansenist, though somewhat at odds with the
leaders of the movement because of his interests in science and philosophy. The
Jansenists were deeply concerned with sin
and living a life of penitence; to pursue anything else was to
embrace worldliness. Pascal loved the discoveries he made by reason and experiment, but he also longed for a life of
purity and closeness to God.
Pascal was seen as a bit
of a mathematical prodigy, especially in his youth when his father led a
secular life by the standards of the day. He published a pamphlet on conic sections when he was 16 years old. He invented
a calculating machine, the Pascaline, when he was 19. He was still fairly
young by modern standards when he developed a theory of probability in a series
of letter he exchanged with Pierre Fermat.
He had a mystical
experience in 1654 that changed his focus in life. He told know one about
it, but wrote a note about it that he kept pinned in his coat to carry with him
the rest of his life. The note was discovered by his nephew shortly after his
death.
After his experience, he
devoted more of his time to supporting Jansenism, which his entire family had
come to follow, especially his sister, Jacqueline, a nun. Jansenists were in
conflict with other Catholics over their views on original sin and election, especially with the Jesuits. Pascal became an apologist for
Jansenism, and especially mocked the Jesuits in The Provincial Letters.
Politics and religion
were deeply linked in 17th Century France, and the conflict between Pascal’s
sect and the wider French Catholic church became a conflict with Louis XIV. He felt that the Jansenist leaders
capitulated to the king and the Jesuits, which brought him into conflict with
them as well.
Though religious debates
had been part of his entire life, this heating up of the conflict to such a
level occurred toward the end of his life. He expressed his devotion to God in
self-imposed poverty and care for the poor; which in one
case took the form of establishing the first public transportation system. He did not abandon math,
though, and published a paper on the cycloid as well. He had been sick most of his
life and passed away in 1662 at the age of 39.
Connor’s book is
approachable for most readers. Though Pascal’s fame today probably rests more
on his accomplishments as a mathematician, Connor shows how his life was shaped
by his religion and both the religious and secular traditions of his time
(Connor is a former Jesuit priest).
If you’re interested in
this book, you may also be interested in
Connor, James A. Pascal’s Wager: The Man Who Played Dice with
God. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006.
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