Blaise Pascal Mathematician, Physicist and Thinker about God Donald Adamson BLAISE PASCAL Also by Donald Adamson THE GENESIS OF LE COUSIN PONS DUSTY HERITAGE THE HOUSE OF NELL GWYN BALZAC: Illusions Per dues LES ROMANTIQUES FRAN^AIS DEVANT LA PEINTURE ESPAGNOLE Translations of Balzac: LA RABOUILLEUSE URSULE MIROUET and of Maupassant: STORIES Blaise Pascal Mathematician, Physicist and Thinker about God Donald Adamson 'Qu'on ne dise pas que je n'ai rien dit de nouveau, la disposition des matieres est nouvelle. Quand on joue a la paume, c'est une meme balle dont joue I'un et Vautre, mais I'un la place mieux (Thought 696V 'Let no one say that I have said nothing new; the arrangement of the material is new. WJien playing tennis, both players use the same ball, but one plays it better' M St. Martin's Press © Donald Adamson 1995 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms oi any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court "Road, London W1P9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published in Great Britain 1995 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 0-333-55036-6 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 95 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd Chippenham, Wiltshire First published in the United States of America 1995 by Scholarly and Reference Division, ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN O-312-12502-X Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Adamson, Donald. Blaise Pascal : mathematician, physicist and thinker about God / Donald Adamson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-312-12502-X 1. Pascal, Blaise, 1623-1662. 2. Science—History. 3. Philosophy—History. 4. Scientist—France—Biography. 5. Philosophers—France—Biography. I. Title. Q143.P17A33 1995 194'.092—dc20 94-31137 CIP To the memory of my beloved mother This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Illustrations viii List of Figures ix Acknowledgments xi 1 Introduction 1 2 Foundations 21 3 Jansenism 49 4 A 'God-Inebriated Man' 63 5 The Provincial Letters 85 6 The Christian Life 115 7 Human Nature 143 8 The Wager 161 9 The Scriptures 175 10 Pascal, 'Devout Geometrician' 189 11 Conclusion 209 Notes and References 233 Select Bibliography 257 A List of Pascals Writings 277 Index 283 Vll List of Illustrations 1 Drawing of Pascal's Theorem of the Mystic Hexagon 2 Pascal's Calculating-Machine 3 The Mechanism of Pascal's 'Arithmetical Machine' 4 The Memorial 5 Marguerite Perier 6 Pascal's Well in the Farmyard at Port-Royal des Champs 7 Pascal's Death Mask 8 Conic Sections vm List of Figures 1.1 Pascal's Theorem of the Mystic Hexagon 3 2.1 A Theorem Inspired by Gerard Desargues 22 2.2 Pascal's Historic Vacuum Experiment 26 2.3 Pascal's Triangle 36 10.1 The Fundamental Cycloid Problems 204 IX