"The heart has reasons that reason itself does not know." Blaise Pascal, author of this phrase, was a modern French philosopher, mathematician, physicist and inventor. The meaning of the phrase is little discussed and often removed from its original context (we will talk about this later), but it marks the understanding of much of the work of this thinker: a Christian who does not fit the rationalism not even empiricism, two philosophical currents much discussed in his time.
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Blaise Pascal Biography
Blaise Pascal was born on June 19, 1623, in the town of Clemont-Ferrand, in France. Son of chief fiscal (and mathematician) Étienne Pascal, and of Antoinette Begon, along with two sisters, Blaise stood out early in the predisposition to the study of mathematics, natural sciences and scholastic training (reference to the medieval formation of the Thomist tradition Aristotelian). Something that is not talked about much about Pascal: in addition to being a mathematician and philosopher, he was a physicist and inventor.
Blaise's first training was in charge of his father, who, from an early age, noticed his son's aptitude for physics and mathematics. His skills were extremely precocious: before reaching adulthood, the French prodigy would have studied in depth (by today's standards) physics and mathematics, having written a small treatise on the mechanics of sound in 1634, in addition to exhaustively studying Euclidean geometry.
In 1640, Pascal published Essay on the çonics, just 16 years old, work in which the mathematician and philosopher formulated Pascal's theorem. the history of math and of the physics did not let Pascal go unnoticed, as he left contributions to the studies of geometry and physical notions, such as pressure and vacuum, which certainly influenced the works later. Pascal left the groundwork for Newton and Leibniz started classical mechanics in the studies of fphysics morder.
Pascal wove practical studies on pressure and vacuum, in addition to having created a machine, La Pascaline, a kind of rudimentary calculator. Your experience with fphilosophy çChristian started in 1646, when his family converted to an essentially Christian doctrine, Jansenism.
It turns out that, after his father's death, Pascal dogmatically resorted to Jansenism as a way of life, abandoning much of his scientific worldview. The declared enemies of the Jansenists in the European Catholic intellectual production were the Jesuits, with a very strong tradition. scholastic. It would be possible to relate Jansenism to a less rationalist and more detached view of the traditional Thomist Aristotelian view of the world, as this would be more linked to the Jesuits.
His latest intellectual production was more focused on philosophy çChristian precisely because of the proximity to Jansenism. It was at this moment that Pascal wrote the Cards Pprovincial (letters in defense of Antoine Arnauld) and his famous philosophical work, Thoughts. The latter was published posthumously. Pascal's philosophical work is highly apologetic, doing Christian apologies for the Jansenist view.
Blaise Pascal died at 39 years of age, on August 19, 1662.
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Video lesson on Blaise Pascal
Pascal's Contributions to Mathematics
Blaise Pascal has dedicated most of his life to mathematics and to fphysics, which made him more notorious in these areas of knowledge than in philosophy. The French philosopher and mathematician was responsible for part of the advancement of studies in geometry. His studies of the ancient mathematician Euclid gave rise to a new perception of geometry.
As a scholar of geometry as well as algebra, Pascal proved to be a famous scholar of fphilosophy of mathematics and of the mathematical methodology. He distinguished some notions dear to the logical understanding of the world today, such as the notion of definition and form, different from the Aristotelian concept of form.
Pascal too developed the tPascal's triangle and he left contributions to infinitesimal calculus from the rationalist philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. We can also attribute to the thinker the development of the theory of probability.
Pascal's contributions to physics
Blaise Pascal also made important contributions to physics in studies on pressure and fluid mechanics. Because of his contributions, the thinker was honored with his name given to the pressure measurement unit recognized by the International System of Units, in addition to being recognized by the therehey pascal, a principle of mechanical studies of fluids.
Pascal's Inventions
In addition to being a complete thinker, who walked through philosophy, theology, physics and mathematics, Blaise Pascal left an important invention for humanity: the first calculator. The mathematician called his work an arithmetic machine. Later, the object was named Pascaline wheel and, finally, Pascaline.
His biography points out that the motivation for creating the machine was the intention to help his father calculate the tax collection in his public office.
Pascal's contributions to thephilosophy
In the field of philosophy, Blaise Pascal stood out for a intense apologetic work with its deep defense of Christianity from the Jansenist bias. The Catholic Church has experienced some internal splits, including the split caused by the vision of Cornelius Jansenius, which aroused criticism from members of the Jesuit order. paschal he did not adopt the Aristotelian Thomist scholastic view of the Jesuits, nor did he follow in the footsteps of so many rationalist philosophers and scientists of his time who turned to atheism and scepticism. Pascal has always remained a Christian.
Pascal's philosophy, expressed mainly in his work Thoughts(posthumously published), consists of a complex set of demonstrations and attempts at rational proofs of the existence of God. In this book, Pascal formulated the gamble theory, which, with an argument strongly anchored in logic, concludes that there is more benefit in betting on the existence of God than the opposite.
Also in this book is the much-publicized phrase “the heart has reasons that reason itself does not know”. A sentence taken out of context may imply something contrary to its original meaning, and that is what happened to the sentence in question. Apparently, it refers to human love and the unreason that can affect a passionate heart. However, Pascal is referring to the relationship between human beings and God.
Pascal anticipates a vision that would be more discussed in the 19th century: the observance of the smallness of human beings in the face of Uverse. In his defense of Christianity, the philosopher makes a point of making it clear that we are microscopic beings close to the greatness of God.
Blaise Pascal's Phrases
"Illusions support man as wings support a bird."
"The Universe is a sphere whose center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere."
"It's easier to bear death without thinking about it."
“Our nature is movement; complete rest is death."
"Justice without force is powerless, force without justice is tyranny."
by Francisco Porfirio
Philosophy teacher
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/biografia/blaise-pascal.htm
