The Genius of Blaise Pascal

Over the years I've provided bits and pieces of the history of Pascal. At my old website I had several links that were frequently used by visitors to find out more about the man. When I moved my activities here, I overlooked transferring them over. But I never really laid out what I've learned about him over the years.

For a starter, view The peerless Genius - Blaise Pascal (sorry, its author does not permit embeds). The video is pretty good. Beware that the score near the end gets a bit too intense.

Now I'll add a few notable accomplishments that were left out.

1) There was no mention of The Provincial Letters, with its invention of a new form of social satire. I see them as something prompted by his religious conversion because he saw that the men ruling the church were at odds with its stated principles. He wrote the letters as a form of defense of another man who the church elders sought to persecute because of his criticism of their laxity and subsequent corruption. They felt their ends justified their means, and they could not rest while some renegade publicly condemned their means. Pascal took their sophistry, which they claimed was pure casuistry, and demonstrated how it had been debased by the whim of men rather than soundly founded upon the faith.

If that sounds vaguely familiar to today's religious institutions, you know why I am so critical of them. (Let me be more clear of what I mean by my agnosticism at this time. While I don't know that God exists -- and that seems to be the way He has meant it to be -- He can't be found by logic alone, I do know that far too many who claim to know Him act like they are far from sincere. I'm more agnostic that any contemporary religious institution provides anything but self-serving shepherds.)

Straining from embarrassment, the church elders persuaded Louis XIV to outlaw the letters and demand all copies to be burned. For that turn of events alone, Pascal showed great wisdom and foresight in penning the Letters under a pseudonym. We are beginning to see a similar wave of censorship descend upon speech in this age -- as with the new religion I call sustainability worship -- so don't be too hard on bloggers who choose to remain anonymous.

2) There's no mention of Pascal's Law by that name. Perhaps because it's stated a bit too technically for the majority of people. The video's author does mention his development of the science of hydraulics, which is to what Pascal's Law pertains. The most significant single thing that you see every day (and take for granted) are the brakes on all sorts of vehicles. Pascal invented them. Furthermore, he built the first omnibus lines with them installed. Mechanical brakes would not work well to stop heavier vehicles. By installing them on the buses made them safe enough to carry passengers.

3) There's some mention of the varied uses of his probability theory. (This video goes into more details about it, and is superior to the video above.) What was not specifically mentioned was actuarial tables. Pascal's invention made the modern insurance industry possible and the monetary evaluation and assignment of risk to enterprises where the possible things that could go wrong could be soundly evaluated. Such as being able to spread around the risk among shipping businesses where not every ship would flounder in storms or be lost to pirates. Thus Gambling was from thence on made productive and was no longer solely a gaming trait.

4) I did like that the author was offended at how many critics of Pascal's Wager make it sound like he had to have been a dunce rather than the brilliant man he was. I will venture further into this another time.

Let me end this with a deep thought posed at the end of the video which that author did not dwell on.

"All of our dignity consists then in thought. By it we must elevate ourselves."

However, there is a cautionary tale there too. Today's wannabe rulers see themselves and those that agree with them in that quote. They feel elevated because they are such great thinkers. And each amongst them -- those they've permitted into their tight circle -- agrees. Isn't that comfy? The rest of us are but unthinking riffraff in need of their guiding paternalism -- STFU.

But because all of mankind can think, all of mankind can choose not to behave by animal instincts alone. In some ways the simplest among us, who know humility, are apt to elevate ourselves more than the brightest thinkers. The more bright are most apt to be corrupted by the pride in knowing their brilliance and then go on and inflict their hubris on the rest of us.

Its parallel may be seen in the often-times paradox of accumulated wealth. The greatness of most men of wealth was in achieving that wealth lawfully and ethically; but the world tends to view them as great only after their success. That natural reaction by others tend to affect their view of themselves. A tendency to enjoy being adored. Have you any doubts as to where that can lead? So it's later, when they (or their heirs) choose to protect all that they have accumulated that they are most apt to have forgotten the virtues and be suspicious that no man can be as good as they once were.

Hence the crackdown on liberty we are witnessing today? I think that (license granted by "obvious" superiority) is a big reason why. (Well, that's after the sustainability issue that provides these supermen a "moral" reason for their hateful behavior).