Blaise Pascal he was a French mathematician physicist inventor writer and Catholic philosopher he was born in Clermont-Ferrand operon France on 19 June 1623 his father's name was Eddie yen Pascal and mother's name was Antoinette vegan his father was a tax collector and a talented mathematician his mother died when he was just three years old his father never remarried and appointed a maid to take care of the children Etienne was completely devoted to his children and educated them himself and encouraged their intellectual pursuits Blaise proved to be a child prodigy who developed a deep interest in mathematics and science as a young boy impressed by the boys fascination with mathematical concepts his father took him to meetings at the mathematics academy in Paris at the age of 16 Blaise Pascal presented some of his early theorems including his mystical hexagon to the audience in 1642 he started working on a mechanical calculator that could perform additions and subtractions after watching his father perform exhausting calculations and recalculations of taxes owed and paid the device was called Pascal's calculator or the Pascal ein he continued working on improving the Pascal eins as there was a discrepancy between the calculators design and the structure of the French currency of the time he had made many improvements to the original design by 1645 yet the Pascal lines were not commercially successful due to their high cost during the 1640s he learned of evangelist to iris Ellie's experimentation with barometers following in his footsteps Pascal experimented with how atmospheric pressure could be estimated in terms of weight through his own experimentation he validated to our Sally's theory concerning the cause of barometric of Ariens and paved the way for further studies in hydrodynamics and hydro statics during the same time period he invented the syringe and created the hydraulic press an instrument based upon the principle that became known as Pascal's law he made significant contributions to mathematics and published his trade do triangle arithmetic treatise on the arithmetic 'el triangle in 1653 the treatise described a convenient tabular presentation for binomial coefficients now called Pascal's triangle in 1654 he corresponded with the eminent mathematician Pierre de firm, on the subject of gambling problems the important groundwork laid by these two great mathematicians proved to be instrumental in Leibniz formulation of the calculus Pascal had an intense religious experience in 1654 after which he mostly gave up work in mathematics following this he focused on writing on religious matters and published an 18 letter series between 1656 and 1657 under the pseudonym Luis de Mon told in these letters he attacked cassis tree a popular ethical method used by Catholic thinkers in the early modern period and this greatly angered king Louis xiv who ordered that the work be shredded and burned in 1660 Blaise Pascal was of delicate health and suffered from several ailments during the later years of his life he was working on an apology on Christianity which he could not complete before his untimely death at the age of 39 the fragments of his work were later collected and published posthumously as the pen sees which is today considered a masterpiece in mathematics his most significant contribution was the development of probability theory he died in Paris France on 19 August 1660 - at the age of 39 justice without forces powerless forced without justice is tyrannical said Blaise Pascal

PHILOSOPHY of Blaise Pascal

To intimate that life is essentially a pleasant process in which happiness is no mirage and human fulfillment a real possibility. However, we need only read a few pages of the book known as The Pensées by the great French 17th-century philosopher Blaise Pascal to appreciate how entirely misguided this approach must be. Because Pascal pulls off the feat of being both one of the most pessimistic figures in western thought and simultaneously one of the most cheering. The combination seems typical. The darkest thinkers can, paradoxically, often be the ones who best lift our mood. Pascal was born in Auvergne in central France in June 1623. And from the earliest days learned, to look at the glass of life as half empty. His mother died when he was three, he had few friends, he was a hunchback, and he was always ill. Luckily, he was recognized from an early age - and by more than just his proud family - to be a genius. By 12, he'd worked out the first 32 propositions of Euclid. He went on to invent the mathematics of probability. He measured atmospheric pressure, constructed a calculating machine, and designed Paris's first omnibus. Then, at the age of 36, ill health forced him to set aside plans for further scientific exploration and led him to write a brilliant, intensely pessimistic series of aphorisms in defense of Christian belief which became known as the Pensées, the book for which we today chiefly remember and revere him The purpose of the book was to convert readers to God and Pascal felt the best way to do this was to evoke everything terrible about life. Having fully considered the misery of the human condition, he assumed his readers would then instantly turn for salvation to the Catholic Church. Unfortunately for Pascal, very few modern readers now follow the Pensées like this. The first part of the book, listing what's wrong with life, has always proved far more popular than the second, which suggests what's so right with God. Pascal begins by telling us that earthly happiness is an illusion. But he's especially keen to point out how much we hate being on our own, thinking and exploring our condition. Pascal is perhaps best known for this aphorism of genius: "All of man's unhappiness comes from his inability to stay peacefully alone in his room." This aphorism should be written in large letters in the departure lounges of all the world's airports. Pascal's charm lies in his bitterness and tart cynicism. People will do anything rather than consider their dreadful reality, he thinks. Man is so vain that the slightest thing, like pushing a ball with a billiard cue, is enough to divert him. At the same time, for Pascal, people are tortured by their passions, especially the passion for fame. We are so, presumptuous that we want to be known all over the world, even by people who will only come after we have gone. And perhaps the greatest source of suffering is the banalest: Boredom. We struggle against obstacles, but once they are overcome, rest proves intolerable because of the boredom it produces. Pascal's bitter conclusion: "What is man? A nothing compared to the infinite." Pascal misses no opportunities to confront his readers with evidence of mankind's resolutely deviant, pitiful, and unworthy nature. In constantly seductive classical French, he informs us that happiness is an illusion. That misery is the norm. That true love is a chimera. That we are as thin-skinned as we are vain. That even the strongest among us are rendered helpless by the countless diseases to which we're vulnerable. That all worldly institutions are corrupt. And finally, we are absurdly prone to overestimate our importance. The very best we may hope to do in these circumstances, Pascal suggests, is to face the desperate facts of our situation head-on. Given the tone, it comes as a real surprise to discover that reading Pascal is not at all the depressing experience one might have presumed. The work is consoling, heart-warming, and even at times pretty hilarious. For those teetering on the verge of despair, there can paradoxically be no finer book to turn to than one which seeks to grind man's every last hope into the dust. The Pensées, far more than any saccharine volume touting inner beauty, positive thinking, or the realization of hidden potential has the power to coax the suicidal off the ledge of a high parapet. If Pascal's pessimism can so effectively console us, it's because we are usually cast into gloom not so much by negativity as by hope. It's hope about our careers, our love lives, our children, our politicians, and our planet that's primarily to blame for angering and then embittering us. The incompatibility between the size of our aspirations and the mean reality of our condition generates the violent disappointments which torture our days and etch themselves in lines of acrimony across our faces. We should honor Pascal and the long line of Christian pessimists to which he belongs for doing us the great favor of publicly and elegantly rehearsing the facts of our rather sinful and pitiful state. Reading Pascal reminds us that the secular is, at this moment in history, a great deal more optimistic than the religious. Something of an irony, given the frequency with which the latter has been derided by the former for their apparent naïvety. It's the secular whose longing for perfection has grown so intense as to lead them to imagine that paradise might be realized on this earth after just a few more years of financial growth and medical research. With no evident awareness of the contradiction, they may in the same breath gruffly dismiss a belief in angels while sincerely trusting that the combined powers of the IMF, the medical research establishment, Silicon Valley, and democratic politics will together cure the ills of mankind. Religions have wisely insisted that we are inherently flawed creatures incapable of everlasting happiness, beset by troubling desires, obsessed by status, Vulnerable to appalling accidents, and always heading for death. Why any of this should be so cheering? Perhaps because pessimistic exaggeration is so comforting. Whatever our private disappointments, we can start to feel very fortunate when we compare our mood to Pascal's. Pascal wanted to turn us to God by telling us how awful life was. But by sharing his pessimistic analyses, he ironically strengthens us to face the trouble of our own lives on this Earth with greater courage, forbearance, and occasional humor.