Pascal was a child prodigy, who was educated by his father. He was a mathematician of the first order. At 16 he wrote the Essai pour les coniques which was published in 1640. In 1642 he invented a calculating machine to help his father, who served as Royal Tax Commissioner at Rouen. Pascal is often credited with the discovery of the mathematical theory of probability, and he also made serious contributions to number theory and geometry.
In 1646 Pascal learned of Toricelli's experiments with the barometer and the theory of air preassure. These experiments involved placing a tube of mercury upside down in a bowl of mercury. Pascal repeated Toricelli's experiments and did more work which led to the publication of Experiences nouvelles touchant le vide in 1647. Aristotle had argued against the atomists that nature abhors a vacume. This was a view still strongly held in the seventeenth century, even by such anti-Aristotelians as Descartes and Hobbes. In the Experiences Pascal explains the reasons why a genuine vacume could and did exist above the mercury in the barometer. In defending these conclusions against Father Noel, rector of the College de Clermont in Paris, Pascal gave one of the clearest statements of scientific method in the seventeenth century.
Pascal Time Line
| 1623 | June 19, born in Claremont the son of Etienne Pascal a minor noble and government official. |
|---|---|
| 1626 | Mother dies. |
| 1631 | Etienne moves to Paris and directs his children's education based on the pedagogy of Montaigne. Blaise proves to be exceptional at mathematics. |
| 1638 | Etienne goes into hiding after opposing a fiscal measure of Richelieu but leaves the children in Paris. |
| 1639 | Blaise's sister, Jacqueline, appears in a play before Richelieu after which he not only pardons Etienne but appoints him tax collector at Rouen. |
| 1642 | Blaise begins to work on his calculating machine to assist his father in the computation of taxes. |
| 1646 | Etienne is injured and is cared for by two Jansenists who convert the family to this strict form of Christianity. |
| 1647 | Visits by Descartes and discussion on atmospheric pressure and the function of the barometer. |
| 1648 | Pascal returns to Claremont. Writes treatise on conic sections. |
| 1650 | Returns to Paris. |
| 1651 | Etienne dies and Jacqueline joins the convent at Port-Royal. |
| 1654 | November 23, a two-hour ecstatic vision leads to his conversion. The account of this vision is kept in the lining of his coat at all times. |
| 1655 | January 7, takes a retreat to Port-Royal where he defends Arnauld against the Jesuits who sought to expell him. |
| 1656 | Appearance of the first of the Provicial Letters. |
| 1658 | Lectures on his apologetics to the leaders of Port-Royal. |
| 1659 | Comes down with the illness that will lead to his death. Works in brief periods of relief from suffering. |
| 1661 | Jacqueline dies. Port-Royal closed after official condemnation of Jansenism. |
| 1662 | August 17, Blaise Pascal dies in the house of one of his sisters. |
| 1670 | Publication of his Thoughts which he had worked on sporadically the last four years of his life "Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A vapor, a drop of water suffices to kill him. But, if the universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over him, the universe knows nothing of this. All our dignity then, consists in thought. By it we must elevate ourselves, and not by space and time which we cannot fill. Let us endavour then, to think well; this is the principle of morality." --Pascal Pensees 347 |
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