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AFTER Rene Descartes, France was gifted with another brilliant mind: Blaise Pascal.
Born on June 19, 1629 to wealthy parents, the young
Blaise exhibited an exceptionally bright mind -- he invented the
“Pascaline,” a prototype of today’s calculator, in order to help his
father.
Blaise Pascal
Photo: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Delicate health forced him to tutoring at home. Despite
lacking formal teaching, the young Pascal taught himself mathematics,
Greek and Latin. The young genius also devised a perpetual motion
machine.
It
was in religion and philosophy where Blaise Pascal excelled as shown in
his work, Pensees. He fought the Jesuits for their flippant
“casuistry,” wrote critically against the established Church especially
when he fell under the influence of an extra-conservative religious
faction of Port-Royal. Their leader was a heretical Dutch bishop,
Cornelius Jansen, who preached only the good and pure will be saved.
Against those who still doubt God’s existence, Pascal formulated his famous “Pascal’s Wager.”
Source: SunStar Philippines
