Blaise pascal in the last years of his life. Blaise Pascal, physicist: biography, description of scientific discoveries, review of inventions

FOREWORD

Many conflicting opinions were expressed about the life and philosophy of Pascal; and it is still difficult to point to even one study about Pascal that does not have the character of either a defense speech or an indictment. Even in the most recent times, the French academician Nurison found it necessary to write the lengthy Defense de Pascal and break spears with the writers of the 18th century because of it. This did not prevent the same Nurison from belittling the significance of Pascal's scientific discoveries, attributing one of them to the suggestion of Descartes.

As for us, we do not aim to either blame or defend. Pascal was a son of the 17th century and shared the shortcomings of his time. If Newton, who lived later than Pascal, could write notes on the Apocalypse devoid of any, even literary, meaning, then Pascal could not be blamed for such theological exercises. But one must possess. too much courage not to recognize for Pascal a very definite and highly honorable place in the history of philosophy and in the history of the development of Christianity. One struggle of Pascal with the Jesuits is enough to ensure the gratitude of his offspring. As a philosopher, Pascal represents an eminently peculiar combination of a skeptic and a pessimist with a sincerely believing mystic; echoes of his philosophy can be found even where you least expect them. Many of Pascal's brilliant thoughts are repeated in a slightly altered form not only by Leibniz, Rousseau, Schopenhauer, Leo Tolstoy, but even by such a thinker apparently opposite to Pascal like Voltaire. So, for example, Voltaire's well-known position, which says that in the life of mankind, small occasions often entail huge consequences, was inspired by the reading of Pascal's "Thoughts". Pascal says, for example, that all the results of Cromwell's political activities perished because a grain of sand entered his bladder, and this led to stone disease. Voltaire, in turn, states that all of Cromwell's extreme revolutionary actions were caused by the state of his digestion. There are dozens of similar far from accidental analogies between Pascal and Voltaire. Quite many of Voltaire's arguments against the Jesuits were taken from Pascal, and one might even say that Voltaire is much more lenient towards the "honorable fathers" than Pascal,

The Jesuits anathematized Pascal; a certain father Gardouen made him even an atheist. The Jansenists made him their saint; the philosophers of the eighteenth century proclaimed Pascal to be half-mad. Both did not publish, but distorted his works, and the Jansenists crossed out everything that seemed impious to them, and Condorcet and other writers of the last century tried to throw out everything that was too godly.

Almost everyone who wrote about Pascal agreed on one point: everyone was amazed at the diversity, strength and extremely early development of his genius. Condorcet, mocking Pascal's confession, which he first called the "amulet", wrote, however, a commendable speech to his scientific discoveries. Voltaire found it necessary to republish Pascal's Thoughts, supplying them with his own notes as an antidote. Voltaire's judgments about Pascal, however, are so curious that it does not hurt to cite them at least in extracts. Laughing in the most cruel way at the optimism in his Candida, where Leibniz got it, Voltaire, with the same wit, attacked Pascal's pessimism, saying about this philosopher: “This pious misanthropist, exalted Heraclitus, who thinks that everything in this world is just misfortune and crime. "

“It seems to me,” Voltaire wrote in his notes to Pascal’s Thoughts, “that the general spirit of Pascal’s works is the portrayal of man in the most hated light; with bitterness he paints us all angry and unhappy; he writes against human nature in much the same way as he wrote against the Jesuits. He attributes to the essence of our nature that which belongs only to famous people, and in the most eloquent way he vilifies the human race. I dare to side with the human race against this exalted man-hater; I dare to assert that we are not at all as evil and not as unhappy as people think. "

Elsewhere Voltaire tries not only to refute Pascal, but also to explain the reasons for his pessimism. Pascal's "thoughts", Voltaire says, do not belong to a philosopher, but to an enthusiast. “If the book Pascal conceived were built from such materials, it would be a monstrous building erected on the sand. But he could not build it not only because of a lack of knowledge, but also because in the last years of his short life his brain was upset. " Referring to the testimony of Leibniz and other writers, Voltaire tries to prove that Pascal in the last five or six years of his life was half-mad, and notes: “This disease is no more humiliating than fever or migraine. If the great Pascal was struck by her, then this is Samson, who has lost his strength. Of all these eternal disputes, only Pascal remains, because he alone was a man of a genius mind. He alone stands on the ruins of his age. "

This view of Pascal, supported by the brilliant sayings of Voltaire and other eighteenth-century encyclopedists, was dominant for a long time. He was fully reflected in a remarkable study for its time, written in the forties of the present century by the doctor Lelyu: the author of this work very skillfully juxtaposed all the facts known in his time, one way or another testifying to the abnormality of Pascal's state of mind. The French philosopher Cousin, who very often condemns Pascal's opinions, but justifies them with the illness of this great man, is partly inclined to the same view.

A completely opposite view is being developed in France by a number of writers, from Jansenist theologians to Saint-Beuve and the academician Nurison. For them, the moral and philosophical teaching of Pascal is the purest expression of Christianity, and, willingly allowing any mistakes of Pascal in his personal life or even in the field of science, they do not allow the slightest encroachment on Pascal as the author of "Thoughts", which is the program of his conceived apology of Christianity ...

All these defensive and accusatory speeches had their meaning in the 17th and 18th centuries, but the time has long come to treat the life and work of Pascal with complete objectivity; and with such an impartial view, one cannot fail to see that both his lawyers and prosecutors fell into obvious exaggerations.

As for Pascal's disease, then, firstly, this disease cannot be considered insanity. In the eighteenth century — and even more so now, at the end of the nineteenth — all sorts of ecstasy were too often confused with madness; there were even attempts to draw a complete analogy and establish a close connection between all kinds of genius and insanity. Pascal was constantly ill, but he cannot be called insane at any period of his life, even when he was under the influence of the strongest religious ecstasy. Moreover, Pascal's illnesses in many cases were in no way a cause, but a consequence of his excessive and, in this sense, abnormal mental activity. A man who possessed such amazing willpower, which we will see in Pascal, could in no way submit to the influence of bad digestion to such an extent that the whole direction of his philosophy could be attributed to this influence. One thing is certain, this is the fact that the constant illness, hampering the scientific work of Pascal, directed his mind too exclusively to another area, and only in this sense can it be said that Pascal's illness made him a mystic from a physicist. He himself recognized this influence of the disease, which he pointed out more than once in his writings.

But, rejecting the too one-sided judgments of the philosophers of the 18th century, it is even more difficult to accept the point of view of those writers for whom Pascal is an unattainable moral authority and who are ready to forget about his true merits, just to recognize him as a great religious preacher. This is the opposite and, perhaps, even less fundamental extreme.

PASCAL'S CHILDHOOD

House of Pascals in Clermont

Blaise Pascal, son of Etienne Pascal and Antoinette, née Begon, was born in Clermont on June 19, 1623.

The entire Pascal family was distinguished by outstanding abilities. Pascal's father, a highly educated man, knew languages, history, literature and was a good mathematician; Blaise's elder sister, Gilberte, was one of the most learned women of her time and studied mathematics and Latin under her father's guidance; she also owns the most complete modern biography of her famous brother. Pascal's younger sister, Jacqueline, was distinguished by her poetic and stage talent. As for Pascal himself, from early childhood he showed signs of extraordinary mental development.

A curious fact about Pascal's infancy is revealed in a short biographical note written by Pascal's niece, daughter of his older sister, who also inherited the family's literary leanings.

When Pascal was one year old, "something extraordinary" happened to him, according to his niece. Pascal's mother was a very young woman, but nevertheless very serious. She was "very pious and very generous to the poor" - traits that we will later find in Pascal himself. In Clermont there lived, among other things, a poor woman whom everyone considered a witch; but Pascal's mother was not superstitious, laughed at the woman's gossip and continued to give this woman alms. Once a strange nervous breakdown happened to little Pascal, like a seizure of epilepsy. This disease itself was at that time very common among children and even received a special name (in Paris it was called tomber en chartre), but Pascal's nervous seizures were accompanied by a special kind of hydrophobia: one type of water caused him to convulse. Moreover, little Pascal noticed the following: a one-year-old child was jealous of his mother for his father. He loved very much when his father and mother caressed him separately; but as soon as the father caressed his mother in front of him, or even went up to her, the child began to scream, he became convulsed and he fell into complete exhaustion.

All the acquaintances and friends of the Pascals were firmly convinced that the child was bewitched and that the witch had jinxed him. Pascal's parents at first laughed at this opinion, but the child's condition worsened, and finally Pascal's father's doubts were shaken. To make sure finally of the guilt or innocence of the witch, Etienne Pascal called the woman into his office and began to interrogate her. The woman assumed an air of oppressed innocence. Then Pascal's father changed his tone.

“I know that you have bewitched my child,” he said, “and if you don’t confess your guilt right away, I’ll bring you to the gallows.”

Then the supposed sorceress threw herself on her knees and began to repent so sincerely that at last Etienne Pascal himself believed her; and that was all the cunning woman needed. She said that she allegedly wanted to bewitch the child in revenge for the fact that Pascal, who held a position in the financial department, refused to petition in her grave case, which turned out to be wrong.

“To take revenge on you,” the woman said, “I said death to your child.

Frightened in earnest, the father exclaimed:

- How! Does my child have to die?

“There’s only one remedy,” said the woman. “Someone else must die for him.

- No, - answered Etienne Pascal, - I do not want anyone else to suffer for me or even for my child.

- Do not worry, - objected the old woman, - I can transfer his lot to any animal.

Etienne Pascal offered a horse, but the woman contented herself with a cat, which she "spoke" in the most primitive way, namely, threw it out of the window and smashed its head. Then she put some kind of poultice on the baby's tummy. When Pascal's father returned home from service, he found everyone in the household in tears, and the child lay as if dead. The father ran out of the room and, meeting on the stairs an imaginary witch, gave her such a slap in the face that the woman rolled down the steps. Not in the least embarrassed, she got up and said that the child was alive and would "leave" before midnight. Indeed, little Pascal "moved away", but when the father approached, in the form of experience, to the mother, the child again began to rush and scream, and only a few weeks later this strange jealousy disappeared. Nevertheless, everyone believed in the miraculous power of the witch.

Little Pascal lost his mother when he was only three years old, and this loss in many ways determined his fate. Pascal was the only son of his father, and the latter circumstance, together with the amazing abilities of the child, prompted the father to engage in his mental education a lot; but due to the absence of a mother, the physical care of the child was poor, and even as a child, Pascal did not differ in good health.

Pascal never attended any school and had no other teacher than his father.

In 1631, when little Pascal was eight years old, his father moved with all his children to Paris, selling his position according to the then custom and investing a significant part of his small capital in the Hôtel de Ville.

Having much leisure, the father devoted himself almost exclusively to the mental education of his son.

Pascal's sister assures that his father tried in every possible way to moderate her brother's ardor for studies. This is partly true - but only in relation to the earliest adolescent years of Pascal.

In those days, Latin was often taught to eight-year-old children, but Pascal's father decided to start Latin with him when the boy was twelve years old, and in the meantime he taught him the general rules of grammar and, as far as can be judged from the little available information, taught much more sensibly than the then school teachers.

Little Pascal was remarkable for his remarkable intelligence and curiosity. His father often told him things that could strike the imagination of a child, but Blaise immediately looked for an explanation and was never content with a bad or incomplete answer. He had a remarkable ability to discern truth from falsehood. If Pascal realized that the explanation was wrong, he tried to come up with his own. Once at dinner one of the guests struck a faience plate with a knife, and there was a lingering musical sound, but as soon as a hand was put on the plate, the sound cut off. Pascal was surprised and demanded an explanation. Not receiving it, he himself began to make experiments and made notes about them, giving them the loud name "Treatise on Sounds." At the time, Pascal was twelve years old. Even earlier, an event occurred that revealed his amazing mathematical abilities.

Pascal's father did a lot of mathematics himself and loved to collect mathematicians in his house. But, having drawn up his son's lesson plan, he postponed mathematics until his son improved his Latin. Knowing Blaise's curiosity, his father carefully hid all mathematical works from him and never conducted mathematical conversations with his friends. When the boy asked to teach him mathematics, his father promised this in the form of a reward in the future. Young Pascal asked his father to explain at least what kind of science is geometry? "Geometry," my father replied, "is a science that provides a means of drawing figures correctly and finding the relationships that exist between these figures."

A twelve-year-old boy pondered this definition. Reflections took possession of him to such an extent that during his leisure hours, being in the hall where he usually played, Pascal began to draw figures, not even knowing their real names. He drew straight lines with charcoal, calling them "sticks", drew circles, trying to make them as correct as possible, and called them "rings"; then he began to look for what proportions exist between the figures and parts of the figures. Looking for proofs of the properties he found by measuring the properties, Pascal composed his theorems and axioms and gradually came to the thirty-second theorem of the first book of Euclid, which states that the sum of the interior angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles.

Just at the very moment when Pascal was finishing the proof of this theorem, his father entered the room, suspecting nothing of his son's activities. The son, in turn, was so immersed in thought that for a long time he did not notice the presence of his father. It is difficult to say which of the two was more stunned: a son caught off guard for an illegal occupation, or a father who saw the figures drawn by his son. But the father's amazement knew no bounds when the son confessed that he was trying to prove the basic property of the triangle.

- How did you come up with this? - finally asked the father.

- And here's how: first I found this, - and the son gave a theorem concerning the properties of the outer corner of a triangle. - And this is how I found out, - and a series of proofs followed. Walking this way and saying, for example, that "two sticks taken together in a figure of three sticks are longer than the third stick", young Pascal explained to his father all the properties of "sticks and rings" discovered by him and finally came to his definitions and axioms.

Pascal's father was not only surprised, but frightened by the power of this childish mind. Without answering a word to his son, he left the room and went to his friend Le Palier, a scientist and disposed to his family. Seeing the extreme excitement of Pascal's father, noticing even tears in his eyes, Le Palier was frightened and asked to say more quickly what happened?

“I'm not crying out of grief, but out of joy,” said Etienne Pascal. - You know how carefully I hid books on mathematics from my son, so as not to distract him from other activities, but look what he did.

And the happy father took Le Palier to his place. He was amazed no less than the father himself and said:

- In my opinion, it is no longer possible to keep this mind locked up and hide this science from it. We must now give him books.

Pascal's father gave his son the Euclidean "Principles", allowing him to read them during his leisure hours. The boy read Euclidean Geometry himself, never asking for an explanation. Not content with what he read, he supplemented and composed. It can therefore be said without any exaggeration that Pascal re-invented the geometry of the ancients, created by entire generations of Egyptian and Greek scientists. This fact is unparalleled even in the biographies of the greatest mathematicians. Clairaud, at the eighteenth year of his life, wrote wonderful treatises, but he had good training, and eighteen years is not like twelve. The abilities of one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, Newton, developed relatively late. Of all the great scientists, Pascal more than anyone else has the right to the title of prematurely developed and equally prematurely dead genius.

FIRST SCIENTIFIC WORKS

Blaise Pascal in his youth. Drawing G. House

The meetings held at Father Pascal's and at some of his friends, for example, at Mersenne, Roberval, Carcavi and others, took on the character of regular scholarly meetings. Once a week, mathematicians who belonged to Etienne Pascal's circle gathered to read the works of the circle members, to offer various questions and problems. Sometimes the notes sent by foreign scholars were also read. The activity of this modest private society, or rather a circle of friends, was the beginning of the future glorious Paris Academy. In 1666, after the death of both Pascals, the French government officially recognized the existence of a society that had managed to acquire a solid reputation throughout the scientific world.

From the age of sixteen, young Pascal also began to take an active part in the classes of the circle. He was already so strong in mathematics that he mastered almost all the methods known at that time, and among the members most often delivering new messages, he was one of the first. Not only his father, but also the proud, envious mathematician Roberval (the inventor of the famous scales) and other members of the circle were amazed at the young man's abilities. Pascal was also strong in criticizing other people's works. Very often problems and theorems were sent from Italy and Germany, and if there was any mistake in the message, Pascal was one of the first to notice it.

At the age of sixteen, Pascal wrote a very remarkable treatise on conic sections (that is, on the curved lines obtained when a plane intersects a cone - such are the ellipse, parabola and hyperbola). Unfortunately, only a fragment of this treatise has survived. Pascal's relatives and friends argued that "since the time of Archimedes, no such mental efforts have been made in the field of geometry" - an exaggerated review, but caused by surprise at the author's extraordinary youth. Some theorems discovered by Pascal are indeed quite remarkable. Pascal was advised at the same time to publish this essay, but he put it off, perhaps because he wanted to create something more remarkable. His sister assures him that his brother did so out of modesty, although this is rather doubtful, because Pascal's excessive modesty appeared only at the end of his life.

Proud of his son's extraordinary abilities, the elder Pascal almost did not interfere in his mathematical work, in which the son soon outstripped his father; but my father continued to study with Pascal ancient languages, logic and physics, which at that time was considered not so much an experimental science as a part of philosophy.

The intensified studies soon undermined Pascal's already frail health. At the age of eighteen, he already constantly complained of a headache, which was not initially paid much attention to. But Pascal's health was finally upset during excessive work on the arithmetic machine invented by him.

General view of an arithmetic machine

At the age of eighteen, Pascal made one of the most ingenious mechanical inventions, very important and interesting from a theoretical point of view, although it did not meet all the hopes of the young inventor. They assure that the reason for this invention was the appointment of his father to Rouen to a position that required extensive counting studies: wishing to facilitate the work of his father, Pascal invented his own calculating machine. This machine is remarkable especially in the sense that by its invention Pascal proved the possibility of replacing not only physical, but also mental labor with purely mechanical devices. This invention strengthened in Pascal the idea, instilled in him by the teachings of Descartes about the automatism of animals, the idea that our mind acts automatically and that some of the most complex mental processes do not essentially differ from mechanical processes. The theory of "brain reflexes" was thus known in part as early as the 17th century.

The machine that Pascal had invented was quite complex in design, and it took a lot of skill to compute with it. This explains why it remained a mechanical curiosity that aroused the surprise of contemporaries, but did not enter into practical use.

Pascal worked for three years to improve his machine, from which he expected miracles. He has tried over fifty different models. The final model is still kept at the Paris Conservatory of Arts and Crafts. It looks like a brass box half an arshin long.

How harmful the work on this invention had on the state of Pascal's body is evident from his own words that from the age of eighteen he does not remember a single day when he could say that he was completely healthy.

Wanting to forestall the ignorant counterfeits of his car, Pascal procured the royal privilege, which was given to him in the most flattering terms. Pascal's arithmetic machine extremely surprised his contemporaries, as can be seen, by the way, from one modern poetic description, which says that many women and men of the highest circle flocked to the Luxembourg Palace to look at this amazing invention of the "French Archimedes".

BEGINNING OF KNOWN

Pascal's arithmetic machine

Since the invention of the arithmetic machine by Pascal, his name has become known not only in France, but also abroad. Although Pascal's sister assures in the biography of her brother that at the age of eighteen he did not crave fame at all, this statement contradicts the actions of Pascal himself, who tried to notify everyone he could about his invention and, for example, wrote a letter to the famous Swedish Queen Christine, the eccentric daughter of Gustav Adolphus, who was engaged in science, who invited Descartes to her place and excited the admiration of her contemporaries with her youth and beauty even more than her scholarship.

Pascal's name could not remain unknown also to Descartes, especially since many of the members of the circle, which included both Pascals, father and son, many of Pascal's closest friends, the father, were notorious opponents of Descartes. In particular, Roberval, a bad philosopher, but a skillful debater, was at enmity with Descartes. It can even be said that the young Pascal was the unwitting culprit for the intensification of the discord that already existed between Descartes and the founders of the future French Academy.

Even before Pascal's invention of the arithmetic machine, when sixteen-year-old Pascal wrote a treatise on conical sections, Descartes was informed of this as a special miracle. Descartes, never surprised by anything, could hardly hide his amazement, did not want to believe and wished to personally familiarize himself with Pascal's treatise. When the list was delivered to him, Descartes, after reading several pages, said: “I thought so, this young man studied with Desargues; he has abilities, but from here it is still far from the miracles that are told about him. "

It should be noted that in the extant passage from Pascal's treatise, the young author himself mentions the Lyon mathematician Desargues, noting that he owes much to his writings. Nevertheless, Descartes's review of Pascal's youthful works is sinful of excessive severity. Descartes could not help but see that Pascal did not limit himself to imitating Desargues, but discovered many extremely remarkable theorems, of which one, which he called the "mystical hexagon," is a very large acquisition for science. The biased opinion of Descartes, the first philosopher of that time, probably touched the young mathematician very sensitively; the friends of Pascal's father were even more irritated, and since then Roberval never missed a single opportunity to annoy Descartes.

The struggle between the school of Descartes, or the so-called Cartesians, and the founders of the French Academy, grouping around Pascal, intensified when the twenty-year-old Pascal undertook a series of physical experiments aimed at continuing the research of Torricelli and other students of Galileo.

Before moving on to this era in Pascal's life, it is necessary to tell an episode that characterizes the mores of that time and that had a significant impact on the fate of the entire Pascal family.

Back in December 1638, the then French government, ravaged by wars and embezzlement, came up with a fairly simple way to increase its funds, namely, cut the rents received from the capital invested in the Hotel de Ville. Among those receiving rent was Pascal's father. The owners of the rentals began to murmur loudly and gather gatherings, at which they openly condemned the government. Pascal's father was considered one of the leaders of this movement, which is very plausible, since he invested almost all his fortune in the Hotel de Ville. One way or another, but the almighty Cardinal Richelieu, who did not tolerate the slightest contradiction, gave the order to arrest Etienne Pascal and put him in the Bastille. Pascal the father, warned in advance by a faithful friend, first hid in Paris and then secretly fled to Auverne. His famous son was only fifteen years old at the time. One can imagine the despair of children! But suddenly things took a new turn. Cardinal Richelieu suddenly had a fantasy to order that in his presence the tragicomic play "Tyrannical Love" by Scudery should be played out by young girls. The management of this performance was entrusted to the Duchess of Aiguillon, who knew the Pascal family and had long noticed the stage abilities of Pascal's younger sister, Jacqueline, then a thirteen-year-old girl.

In the absence of his father, the head of the family was Pascal's elder sister, Gilbert. When the Duchess asked if she would allow her younger sister to take part in the play, the eighteen-year-old girl gave a proud answer: "The Cardinal," she said, "did not give us so much pleasure that we could in turn think about giving him entertainment."

The Duchess insisted, and finally, seeing the stubbornness of the young girl, said with fervor:

- Understand that the fulfillment of my request, perhaps, will serve to the return of your father.

Gilberte, however, announced that she would not give an answer before consulting her father's close friends. At a meeting she convened, it was decided that her sister Jacqueline would take on her assigned role.

The play Tyrannical Love was performed in the presence of Cardinal Richelieu on April 3, 1639. Jacqueline played her part with remarkable grace, which captivated all the spectators and most of all the cardinal himself. The smart girl was able to take advantage of her success. At the end of the performance, she unexpectedly approached the cardinal and recited a poetic epilogue written by her, in which it was said: “Do not be amazed, incomparable Armand, that I have so poorly satisfied your hearing and vision. My soul is under the influence of excruciating anxiety. To make me able to please you, bring my unfortunate father back from exile, save the innocent! By doing this, you will return freedom to my spirit and body, voice and body movements. "

Astonished and completely charmed, Cardinal Richelieu raised the girl and, while she was still speaking her poems, kissed her several times, and then said:

“Yes, my child, I will do whatever you want for you. Write to your father so that he can safely return home.

Then the Duchess Aiguillon came up and began to praise the elder Pascal, saying:

- He is a remarkably honest and learned person. It is a pity that his knowledge and hard work remain without application. But, - continued the Duchess, pointing to Blaise Pascal, - his son: he is only sixteen years old, and he is already a great mathematician.

Meanwhile Jacqueline, encouraged by her success, again turned to the cardinal.

“I ask for one more grace,” she said.

- What is it, my child? I cannot deny you anything, you are too sweet.

“Let my father appear to you personally to thank you for your kindness.

- Yes, by all means let him come, only with all of you.

Etienne Pascal is immediately notified of this. He rushes by courier, arrives in Paris and immediately, taking all the children, introduces himself to the cardinal. Richelieu takes it in the most amiable way.

“I know your merits and merits,” said the cardinal. - Return to your children: I entrust them to you. I want to make something extraordinary out of them.

Two years later (1641), Etienne Pascal was promoted to quartermaster at Rouen, at that time a very advantageous post for indiscriminate people; but Etienne Pascal would be an honest man, and, having held this position for seven years, he did not have time to amass a fortune.

The resettlement to Rouen, as already noted, prompted Pascal to invent the arithmetic machine. Here, in Rouen, he undertook his physical experiments.

PASCAL AS A PHYSICIST AND EXPERIMENTATOR

At the beginning of the 17th century, physical knowledge was still in a rather chaotic state, and progress since the times of Aristotle and Archimedes was very insignificant.

One of the most widespread misconceptions at that time, prevailing both in the scientific world and among the public, was the doctrine of the so-called "fear of emptiness." The assertion that nature is afraid of emptiness is often found among ancient writers. As for the greatest of the Greek philosophers and natural scientists, Aristotle, he understood the "fear of emptiness" in a very special sense, almost as Descartes and his followers later understood it. According to Aristotle, absolutely empty space does not exist at all, and in this sense he said that nature is afraid of emptiness. Later commentators on Aristotle understood the matter differently and imagined that nature has an irresistible desire to fill any void that forms: thus, physical phenomena were tried to be explained by properties inherent only to feeling and thinking beings, such as the ability to feel fear or to experience the desire.

Descartes in his physical theory resolutely rejected the very existence of emptiness, and, consequently, the doctrine of the fear of emptiness. As early as 1631, Descartes, in one of his letters, almost guesses the truth, noting that "a column of mercury can be held with just such a force that is necessary in order to raise a column of air extending from this column of mercury to the limits of the atmosphere." Instead of dwelling on this simple idea and developing it with experiments and reasoning, Descartes soon plunged into the intricacies of his "subtlest matter" - something like the ether of the latest physicists - and thus confused his own simpler explanation.

Meanwhile, one of Galileo's most capable students, Torricelli, in 1643 undertook experiments to lift various liquids in pipes and pumps. Having learned about the experiments of Torricelli, Pascal, in turn, undertook a number of experiments.

At that time, Pascal still recognized the "fear of emptiness," but considered it not as some kind of unlimited desire to fill empty space, but as a force that could be changed and, therefore, limited.

Torricelli's experiments convinced Pascal that it was possible to get a void, if not absolute, then at least one in which there is no air or water vapor. He did not believe in the “finest matter” of Descartes, and at first he attributed the phenomena of rising water in a pump and mercury in a tube to “a limited fear of emptiness,” that is, as he explains, “the resistance of bodies to their mutual separation”. Convinced of the insufficiency of this explanation and knowing full well that air has weight, Pascal attacked the idea of explaining the phenomena observed in pumps and in pipes by the action of this weight.

The experiments initiated by Pascal in 1648 prompted him to begin writing an extensive treatise on the equilibrium of liquids, but he managed to compose only a short study, and it was not published until after his death.

Pascal's scientific works have enormous merits that distinguish his works favorably from the works of most of his contemporaries. Pascal's presentation is remarkable for its extraordinary clarity and general accessibility. His treatise on the equilibrium of fluids can be read by people who know only arithmetic.

Pascal explains the phenomena that depend on air pressure in the same simple way. In his treatise On the Weight of Air, Pascal directly and decisively opposes the doctrine of the fear of emptiness and says that all the phenomena attributed to this fear depend on the weight of air and the uniform distribution of pressure. At every step, Pascal draws a parallel between the pressure of the air mass and the pressure of liquids; So, for example, speaking about how difficult it is to separate two polished plates folded together, he explains this phenomenon by air pressure on the outer surfaces of the plates and notes: "A completely similar phenomenon can be reproduced when the plates are folded together in water."

From the discoveries that Pascal made about the equilibrium of liquids and gases, one would expect one of the greatest experimenters of all time to emerge from him. But even before the production of the famous experiments on the Puy-de-Dome mountain, an event occurred in Pascal's life that had a very unfavorable effect on his mental activity.

PASCAL'S FIRST "APPEAL"

Ever since the invention of the arithmetic machine, Pascal was constantly ill and complained of fatigue and headache. After moving to Rouen, he at first seemed to have recovered, but in 1646 an incident happened to his father that greatly shook Pascal's nervous system. The elder Pascal fell unhappily during the trip and was on the verge of death. This incident, in connection with his previous mental state, so influenced the young Pascal that from that time on, they began to notice a certain change in him, expressed primarily in an extraordinary religiosity. Pascal himself called the inner revolution that took place in him his first "conversion." It will be clarified below that the reasons for this “conversion” are rather complex.

Since childhood, Pascal was quite religious, but until then he had never shown any particular zeal in matters of faith. Now he began to diligently read the Holy Scriptures and theological writings and, not content with his own conversion, he tried to convert all his household, not excluding his father. His elder sister, Gilberte, fortunately, managed to marry Florent Perrier, who willingly helped Pascal in his scientific experiments; but the youngest, Jacqueline, a beautiful, graceful girl who showed brilliant hope, wrote poems that deserved the praise of Corneille, soon submitted to the influence of her brother, began to think about renouncing the world, and finally went to a monastery. Even Pascal's father succumbed to the influence of his son and, although he was not an atheist before, now he began to perform the rituals and attend church especially carefully. Many clergymen took advantage of this mood of the entire Pascal family. At the same time, many leaders of the so-called Jansenist movement became close to the Pascals.

Young Pascal was so carried away by his religious exercises that at first he discovered all the qualities that characterize proselytes. In one case, he did not even stop at a formal denunciation of a person who seemed to him religiously dangerous. Pascal's sister, Gilbert, tells about this event in the most naive way: “At that time there was a man (Jacques Forton) in Rouen, teaching a new philosophy that attracted many curious people. Among his listeners were my brother and two young people who were friends with him. From the very first time they noticed that this man deduced from his philosophy consequences that were contrary to the teachings of the church. So, for example, by his inferences he argued that the flesh of Jesus was supposedly formed not from the blood of the Holy Virgin, but from some other substance, purposely created for this purpose, and many other similar things. They objected to him, but he persisted in his opinion. Having discussed among themselves the danger that threatened the youth from the free dissemination of such erroneous judgments by this man, my brother and his friends first agreed to warn him, but if he remained unconvinced, they decided to denounce him. This happened because he neglected their advice. Then they considered it their duty to inform the vicar bishop of Rouen Bellay about this man, who sent from himself to interrogate Forton, but, having interrogated him, was deceived by an ambiguous confession of faith, which he stated and signed. Moreover, Bellay did not attach much importance to the testimony of the three young men in such an important matter. But they, being dissatisfied, immediately went to the archbishop of Rouen himself, who, having examined the matter, found it so important that he wrote a positive order that Bellay force this man to renounce all the points on which he was accused.

The culprit was called to the archbishop's council and indeed renounced all his opinions. One can say, - explains Pascal's sister, - that he did it quite sincerely, because afterwards he did not have a drop of bile against those who had reported on him: thus, the whole thing ended amicably. "

Some biographers of Pascal tried to whitewash his act. But even Nurison, who is very condescending to Pascal in such cases, remarks that "a low deed remains low, even if it was done even by a saint." Pascal is justified by the fact that he sincerely believed in the disastrousness of the new teaching, but in that case he could publicly refute it, instead of running around with denunciations. The only mitigating circumstance is the painfully enthusiastic mood in which Pascal found himself after his first conversion.

According to his sister, Pascal, from an early age, "was distinguished by an aversion to the then fashionable freethinking." Science and religion were two completely different areas for Pascal. As much as he was inquisitive in matters relating to mathematics and physics, just as he knew how to limit his curiosity in matters of faith. Pascal often repeated that he owed such a distinction between questions of knowledge and faith to his father, who from childhood told him that everything that is an object of faith cannot be subject to the control of reason. whom my brother had great respect and in which he saw a combination of vast scientific knowledge with an astute and strong mind, made such a strong impression on my brother that, hearing the speeches of free-thinkers, he was not at all embarrassed by them. When the brother was still very young, he looked at free-thinkers as people proceeding from the false principle that the human mind is higher than everything that exists, as a result of which they do not understand the essence of faith ... In matters of religion, the brother was obedient as a child ... He never dealt with subtle theological issues, but used all the power of his mind to learn and apply Christian morality to the matter. "

This is the judgment of Pascal's sister, which is somewhat correct, but, of course, does not explain the contradiction that is characteristic of most of the religious ecstasies, such as that which Pascal underwent. How could a person, imbued with the principles of love for his neighbor, reach the point that he acted in a role worthy of an inquisitor?

This becomes clear if we remember that real inquisitors like Torquemada combined severe virtues with the most brutal cruelty.

Although at the end of his life, Pascal's father partly submitted to the influence of his son, it is evident that his influence on the young Pascal was moderating and sobering. His son’s health often raised serious concerns in his father, and with the help of his friends at home, he repeatedly urged young Pascal to have fun, abandon exclusively scientific pursuits and temper the spirit of excessive holiness, “spreading,” according to his sister, “to the whole house”.

Finally, there was a temporary reaction, and youth took its toll. To what a nervous breakdown Pascal sometimes was driven by his pious exercises, can be seen from the following story of his niece: “My uncle,” she writes, “lived in great piety, which he conveyed to the whole family. One day he fell into an extraordinary state, which was the result of extraordinary studies in the sciences. His brain was so tired that a kind of paralysis happened to my uncle. This paralysis spread from the waist to the very bottom, so that at one time my uncle could walk only on crutches. His hands and feet became as cold as marble, and every day he had to put on socks soaked in vodka to warm his feet a little. "

The doctors, seeing him in such a state, forbade him to do all kinds of activities; but this lively and active mind could not remain idle. No longer occupied with either the sciences or the affairs of piety, Pascal began to seek pleasure and finally began to lead a secular life, play and have fun. Initially, it was all in moderation; but gradually he got a taste and began to live like all secular people.

The scantiest information has been preserved about this period of Pascal's life. His first biographers - his sister and niece - tried in every possible way to cover the events of this time. Later, Pascal's enemies, obviously, exaggerated the matter, assuring, for example, that he had become a passionate gambler and a mota, and that he drove only in a carriage of gears. This carriage, in all likelihood, did not belong to Pascal at all, but to his new friend, the Duke of Roanes, who carried Pascal with him everywhere.

But the short reaction was not entirely fruitless: Pascal managed to finish his experiments in hydrostatics, invented his famous "arithmetic triangle" and laid the foundation for the theory of probability.

Pascal suffered a major loss with the death of his father in 1651. Pascal himself says that if this death had occurred six years earlier, that is, during his first conversion, he would have been a lost person.

On the occasion of his father's death, Pascal wrote a letter to his elder sister and her husband, for which he was often accused of heartlessness. This reproach is hardly fundamental. Only on a superficial reading can Pascal's letter appear resonant and cold; in reality it is a kind of confession or repentance.

The secular entertainment that Pascal allowed himself often seemed criminal to him, and in difficult moments, such as those brought about by the death of his father, he again became unusually religious and reproached himself for changing his lifestyle. If Pascal's letter looks like a sermon or a pastoral message, then he turns his teachings not so much to his sister as to himself. In the letter one can feel not only the consolation of the sister, but also the cry of a tortured soul. “Let us not grieve,” writes Pascal, “like pagans who have no hope. We did not lose our father at the time of his death; we lost him from the moment he became a member of the church: from that moment he no longer belonged to us, but to a deity. Let us no longer look at death as pagans, but as Christians, that is, with hope. Let us not look at the body as a container of all that is bad, but as an indestructible and eternal temple. Nature often tempts us, our lust often craves satisfaction, but sin is not yet perfect if the mind refuses to sin. "

With such a state of mind, it is not surprising that Pascal often thought about his own death. Frequent illnesses involuntarily led him to this idea. Even before his father's death, Pascal wrote, in the spirit of the first Christians, a prayer "for the good use of disease." In this prayer, he says: “Although in my past life I do not know the great crimes that I did not have the opportunity to commit, my life was shameful for its utter idleness and the uselessness of all my actions and thoughts. This whole life was a waste of time. " In his self-flagellation, Pascal goes so far as to think that physical suffering is completely deserved for himself and looks at it as a saving punishment. “I confess,” he says, “that there was a time when I considered health to be a blessing.” Now he prays to the deity only that he could suffer as a Christian. “I am not praying for deliverance from suffering - this is the reward of the saints,” Pascal remarks with touching naivety.

About how firm Pascal was in enduring physical torment, the testimony of his sister has survived:

“Among his other painful seizures was the one that he could not swallow any liquid until it was heated enough, and he could swallow only drop by drop, but since he suffered from an unbearable headache, excessive heat in the insides and many other diseases, the doctors ordered him to take laxatives every other day for three months. Thus, he had to take all these potions, for which he had to heat them up and swallow them drop by drop. It was sheer torment, and everyone close to him felt sick, but no one ever heard the slightest complaint from him. "

PASCAL'S LITTLE DATING. DISCOVERY OF THE THEORY OF PROBABILITIES

After the death of his father, Pascal, having become the unlimited master of his fortune, for some time continued to live a secular life, although more and more often he experienced periods of repentance. There was, however, a time when Pascal became not indifferent to female society: so, by the way, he courted in the province of Poitou a very educated and charming girl who wrote poetry and received the nickname of the local Sappho. Even more serious feelings appeared in Pascal towards the sister of the provincial governor, the Duke of Roanes.

This duke was a very curious type of the time when, along with the most refined debauchery, Puritan virtues came across. Having lost his father early, the duke was brought up by his grandfather, a rude provincial master, who assigned a tutor to his grandson, giving him a very original order to teach the young duke "to swear like a lord, since a real nobleman should be able to deal with his servants." Nevertheless, the young duke did not come out at all what his grandfather had hoped for.

Back in 1647, young Roanes met Pascal and fell in love with him so much that he could not part with him for a long time. The Duke placed Pascal in his house, constantly traveled with him around his province, and was extremely upset when Pascal left him for a long time. Pascal had a tremendous influence on the duke. At twenty-five years old, this aristocrat, despite all the requests and even threats from his relatives, refused a very profitable marriage union, then sold his position, transferred his title to one relative and doomed himself to celibacy.

It is difficult to determine exactly when the Duke of Roanes introduced Pascal to his sister Charlotte. Pascal was so often in the duke's company that this acquaintance could have begun even before the death of Pascal's father; in any case, Pascal was already in love with Charlotte Roanes in 1652, when he wrote his "Speech on Passion for Love." A man who knew love only from books could not write like that, and this "Speech" is more eloquent than any recognition. As for the correspondence between Pascal and Charlotte, much cannot be learned from it, because the surviving letters belong to a later period, when Pascal drove away from himself any thought of earthly love.

In his "Thoughts" ("Pensées") Pascal says in one place: "You can hide as much as you like: everyone loves." These words may serve as the best characterization of his failed romance. In all likelihood, Pascal either did not dare to tell his girlfriend about his feelings at all, or expressed them in such a hidden form that the girl Roanse, in turn, did not dare to give him the slightest hope, although if she did not love, then she highly respected Pascal. The difference in social positions, secular prejudices and natural girlish modesty did not give her the opportunity to reassure Pascal, who gradually got used to the idea that this noble and rich beauty would never belong to him.

Being drawn into secular life, Pascal, however, never was and could not be a secular person. He was shy, even timid and at the same time too naive, so that many of his sincere impulses seemed just philistine bad manners and tactlessness. In the company of real worldly people who surrounded the Duke of Roanes and his sister, Pascal seemed at times just awkward and ridiculous, and his closeness to the duke and the influence that Pascal had on this nobleman made him many enemies. Even the concierge (gatekeeper) of the duke's Parisian house hated Pascal and was so jealous of her master that she once rushed at Pascal with a kitchen knife, and he only narrowly escaped death. Among the secular people who moved around the duke, there were many brilliant young people like the dandy and dandy Miton, who was well-known at that time, and the much smarter, but impudent and conceited cavalier de Mere. This latter, quite by chance, became the culprit of one of the best scientific discoveries of Pascal, and it is worth talking about it already because there were biographers who imagined that this gentleman had a huge influence on Pascal and almost contributed to the new internal revolution that took place in him.

The Cavalier de Mere was, in every sense, a type of brilliant salon philosopher, just like those learned ladies portrayed by Moliere in his famous comedy Les Précieuses ridicules. The Chevalier de Mere was just such a précieux. He left a considerable number of works that "brought him a little honor," as one of his contemporaries put it. Very educated for a nobleman of that time, who knew ancient languages, who knew how to sprinkle his speech with quotations from Homer, Plato and Plutarch, the cavalier de Mere in his works robbed some of the ancient and new writers. The cavalier de Mere's motto was: "Always be an honest man", which did not prevent him from playing a desperate game. After his death, he left behind debts that ruined all of his creditors.

This aristocrat, having met Pascal with the Duke of Roanes, treated the famous mathematician in the same way that secular people generally treat those who are considered inferior to themselves by birth and upbringing. Mere himself describes their first acquaintance in a letter, which deserves to be cited, since it characterizes Pascal's position in secular society.

“The Duke of Roanes,” writes the Chevalier de Mere, “has a penchant for mathematics. In order not to get bored during the trip, he stocked up on one elderly man. (Pascal, in his sickly appearance, seemed much older than his years, although in his early youth he was remarkably handsome). This gentleman, says de Mere, was still very little known at that time, but then they began to talk about him. He was a strong mathematician, who knew, however, nothing but mathematics - a science that has no meaning at all in the world. This man, who did not possess any taste and tact, constantly interfered in our conversations, and almost always surprised us and often made us laugh ... So two or three days passed. Gradually, he became less confident in himself, began only to listen and ask, and had a notebook with him, where he made various comments ... Little by little, he began to speak much better than before, and he himself found joy that he had changed so much. His joy was extraordinary, and he expressed it in some mysterious way: he said, for example, that he loved all these things, because he was sure that others could not know what he knew. “Finally,” he said, “I came out of these wild places and see a clear and clear sky. I assure you that I was not used to the bright light, but I was blinded by it, and therefore I was angry with you; but now I'm used to it; this light delights me and I regret the wasted time ”. After his journey, this man stopped thinking about mathematics, which had occupied him until then! "

Based on this story, other biographers claim that Mere re-educated Pascal and, having discouraged him from mathematics, forced him to study more important matters.

To appreciate the story of the Chevalier de Mere, one must first of all know the opinion of Pascal himself about this secular philosopher. In one of his works, Pascal remarks fluently: “You have to keep your thoughts locked up. I will beware when traveling. " It seems that this note is directly related to the described trip. In all likelihood, Pascal had the imprudence to confess out loud about the internal struggle that was taking place in him, and the smug gentleman imagined that it was he who influenced Pascal with his piercing mockery of mathematics! That Pascal did not at all have a high opinion of de Mere's genius is proved by Pascal's letter to the famous mathematician Fermat. “Cavalier de Mere,” writes Pascal, “is a very witty person, but he is not a mathematician at all; this, as you know, is a huge disadvantage; he even cannot understand in any way that the mathematical line is divisible to infinity, and imagines that it consists of an infinite number of points standing one next to another; I could not dissuade him of this in any way. If you succeed, he will become perfect. " The last remark is an obvious irony. Indeed, is it possible to argue about mathematics with a person who is not able to understand that a mathematical point has no measurement and that an infinite number of points that have no measurement is a completely indefinite concept, like zero taken as a term an infinite number of times.

The great philosopher Leibniz made a fair judgment about the correspondence between Mere and Pascal.

“I could hardly restrain myself from laughing,” wrote Leibniz, “when I saw the tone in which the cavalier de Mere wrote to Pascal. I see that the gentleman understood Pascal's character, realizing that this great genius had his own irregularities, which often made him too sensitive to exaggerated spiritualistic reasoning, as a result of which he was more than once temporarily disappointed in the most solid knowledge. De Mere used this to speak to Pascal from top to bottom. He seems to be making fun of Pascal, as secular people do with an excess of wit and lack of knowledge. They want to convince us that what they do not understand is a trifle. We ought to send this gentleman to Roberval's school. True, de Mere had great talent even for mathematics. I learned, however, from De Billette, Pascal's friend, of the famous discovery that this gentleman is so bragging about. As a passionate gambler, he first came up with the problem of evaluating a bet. The question he proposed gave rise to the excellent studies of Fermat, Pascal and Huygens, in which Roberval could not understand anything ... But what the Cavalier de Mere writes against infinite divisibility proves that the author of the letter is still too far from the highest world spheres, and, in all probability , the delights of the local world, about which he also writes, did not give him enough time to acquire the right of citizenship in a higher area. "

For the Chevalier de Mere, the history of mathematics must recognize the undoubted merit that he passionately loved the game of dice. Were it not for this, the theory of probability might be a century late.

As a passionate gambler, de Mere was extremely interested in the following question: how to split the bet between the players in case the game was not over? The solution to this problem did not at all lend itself to all mathematical methods known until that time.

Mathematicians are accustomed to dealing with questions that admit quite reliable, accurate, or at least an approximate solution. Here the question had to be resolved, not knowing which of the players could win if the game continued? It is clear that this was a problem that had to be solved based on the degree of probability of winning or losing one or another player. But until then, no mathematician had ever thought to calculate only probable events. It seemed that the problem admits only a guessing solution, that is, that the bet must be divided completely at random, for example, by throwing a lot to determine who should have the final win.

It took the genius of Pascal and Fermat to understand that problems of this kind admit quite definite solutions and that "probability" is a measurable quantity.

The two problems proposed by Chevalier de Mere are as follows. First: how to find out how many times you need to throw two dice in the hope of getting the highest number of points, that is, twelve; another: how to distribute the winnings between two players in the case of an unfinished game. The first task is relatively easy: it is necessary to determine how many different combinations of glasses there can be; only one of these combinations is favorable to the event, all the others are unfavorable, and the probability is calculated very simply. The second task is much more difficult. Both were solved simultaneously in Toulouse by the mathematician Fermat and in Paris by Pascal. On this occasion, in 1654, a correspondence began between Pascal and Fermat, and, not knowing personally, they became best friends. Fermat solved both problems by means of the theory of combinations invented by him. Pascal's solution was much simpler: he proceeded from purely arithmetic considerations. Not in the least envious of Fermat, Pascal, on the contrary, rejoiced at the coincidence of the results and wrote: “From now on I would like to open my soul to you, so I am glad that our thoughts met. I see that the truth is the same in Toulouse and in Paris. "

Work on the theory of probability led Pascal to a remarkable mathematical discovery, which is still not fully appreciated. He compiled the so-called arithmetic triangle, which allows replacing many very complex algebraic calculations with the simplest arithmetic operations.

American scientist Martin Gardner said about the amazing nature of this discovery: “Pascal's triangle is so simple that even a ten-year-old child can write it out. At the same time, he conceals inexhaustible treasures and links together various aspects of mathematics that at first glance have nothing in common. Such unusual properties make it possible to consider Pascal's triangle one of the most elegant schemes in all mathematics. "

The most obvious use for Pascal's triangle is that it allows fairly complex sums to be calculated almost instantly. In probability theory, Pascal's triangle also replaces complex algebraic formulas.

PASCAL'S SECOND "APPEAL". HIS "TESTAMENT"

As early as October 1654, Pascal was in active correspondence with Fermat on questions concerning the theory of probability; a few weeks later, an event occurred to Pascal that undoubtedly influenced him very strongly. It would be a mistake, however, to think that the final change in Pascal's way of life occurred suddenly, under the influence of this one event.

Pascal's first "conversion", as we have seen, was caused by the unfortunate fall of his father; the closest reason for the second "conversion" was the mortal danger to which he himself was exposed. But to deduce from these two cases that Pascal was both temporarily insane is to abuse psychiatric terms. Not every ecstasy, and not even every hallucination, serves as proof of that complete mental disorder, expressed mainly in the weakening of the will, which deserves the name of insanity. Otherwise, very, very many would have to be ranked among the madmen. In the eighteenth century, when the classification of mental illness was in its most primitive state, such a confusion of concepts was still excusable, but at present no rational psychiatrist would dare to declare Pascal insane, although everyone would recognize his condition as abnormal.

It is remarkable that Pascal's sister does not even mention the new incident on the Neuilly bridge, which she would not have been able to pass over in silence if Pascal had really been subject to constant hallucinations associated with this event. These hallucinations probably only possessed Pascal for a short period of time.

Without at all doubting the veracity of the fact itself, attested in one monastic chronicle, one should think that this incident only hastened an internal revolution, which would sooner or later have come in Pascal in a different way.

One holiday Pascal was riding with his friends in a carriage pulled by four horses, when suddenly the riders took a bite at the bit just at the moment when the carriage, traveling across the bridge, caught up with the place not blocked by the railing. In an instant, the horses fell into the water, the drawbar broke, and the carriage body, having come off, remained with the riders on the very edge of the abyss.

This incident greatly shook Pascal's nervous system, and it is not impossible that for several weeks or even months he may have suffered from insomnia and hallucinations. Abbot Boileau affirms the following: “This great mind has always (?) Imagined that it sees an abyss on its left side. He constantly put a chair on his left hand to calm himself. His friends, his confessor, his boss (that is, the abbot, who was Pascal's spiritual mentor in the Port-Royal Jansenist refuge) repeatedly convinced him that there was nothing to be afraid of, that these were nothing more than ghosts of the imagination, tired of abstract metaphysical reflections. He agreed with them in everything and a quarter of an hour later he again saw the bottomless abyss that frightened him. "

This testimony of the Abbot Boileau is all the more important since the abbot, apparently, did not know about the incident at the Neuilly bridge. It is difficult to imagine that he could falsely ascribe to Pascal just such hallucinations that have an undeniable connection with this incident. Nevertheless, the assertion that Pascal was "always" possessed by these ghosts cannot be believed in any way.

If the philosophers of the eighteenth century went to extremes, considering Pascal to be insane, then those modern writers who unconditionally reject the story of Abbe Boileau, allegedly insulting to Pascal's memory, are hardly more correct in their reasoning, as if the painful disorder was a vice or a crime.

One thing is certain: Pascal's so-called second "appeal" was caused not only by the accident with the sidecar, but by a number of deeper reasons. Excessively intense mental activity, the absence of any family joys and interests, except for abstract scientific ones, the influence of friends belonging to the Jansenist sect, unsuccessful love and eternal diseases - all this in connection with previous religious impulses serves as a sufficient explanation for Pascal's final "conversion". Moreover, for Pascal, religious ecstasy was, as it were, a reaction that followed the excessive exertion demanded by his scientific discoveries. This happened to him for the first time after the invention of the arithmetic machine and the writing of papers on hydrostatics; in the second - after the discovery of the theory of probability. When his strength, mental and physical, was finally exhausted, the religious sphere was the only one in which he could live and think, and even physical suffering, oppressing mental activity, did not interfere with religious ecstasy, often providing suitable material for him. In this sense, it can indeed be said that Pascal's religiosity had a close connection with his illnesses. Philosophers of the 18th century, seeing this connection, misunderstood it, claiming that Pascal became a "slave" of his body. This explanation is too crude and one-sided. It is known that Pascal, on the contrary, possessed tremendous willpower.

There is no doubt that the most important role in Pascal's conversion, in addition to the influence of the people around him and the ideas of the 17th century, was played by very complex psychological reasons that prepared a gradual upheaval, for which the event with the wheelchair served as a strong impetus, but no more. It is known about the conversion itself that it took place in November 1654, on one fateful night, when Pascal, under the influence of insomnia and a long internal struggle, came to an ecstatic state, close to that which possesses other epileptics before an epileptic fit - a condition outlined by Dostoevsky in his "Idiot". Under the influence of this ecstasy, Pascal wrote a kind of confession, or testament, which he sewed into the lining of his clothes and always carried with him ever since. The philosophers of the eighteenth century considered this confession to be the delusion of a madman; Pascal's newest defenders see it as a religious program, a kind of confession of faith.

In reality, this document, for all its incoherence, is a condensed program of Pascal's moral and religious convictions, but a program written not as a result of deep reflections on faith, but almost unconsciously, almost in delirium.

Amulet (memorial) of Pascal

The year by the grace of God is 1654. Monday, November 23, on the day of St. Clement Martyr and Pope and other martyrs. From about ten and a half in the evening until half past midnight.(As a mathematician, Pascal determines the duration of his ecstasy to within half an hour.)

Deceased.

God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, but not the God of philosophers and scientists.

Credibility. Feeling. Joy. Peace. God of Jesus Christ. Your God will be my God. Forgetting the world and everything except God. It can only be found in the ways indicated in the Gospel. The greatness of the human soul. Righteous father, the world did not know you, but I knew you. Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy, I separated from him: the springs of living water left me. My God, will you leave me? I have not separated from him forever. Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ. I separated from him; I fled from him, crucified him, denied. May I never separate myself from him. It is preserved only in the ways taught in the Gospel. The renunciation of the world is complete and sweet. Complete submission to Christ and my spiritual leader. Eternal joy for one day of labor on earth. May I not forget your commandments. Amen.

Of course, this confession is not the delirium of a madman, although it looks like delusion. It is hardly also a talisman, intended to protect from all kinds of misfortunes.

The latter assumption was made by Condorcet, who was so surprised by the reading of Pascal's confession that he considered it to be something of an incantation against the devil's obsession. In support of this hypothesis, which was also assimilated by the physician Lelyu, who wrote in 1846 a whole book “Pascal's Amulet; the relation of the health of this great man to his genius "- some data seem to support this hypothesis. As we will see below, Pascal went very far in matters of faith and, for example, fully believed in the "miracle of the holy thorns." It is highly plausible, therefore, to assume that he could believe in the mysterious power of a piece of paper and parchment - he wrote his confession on two such pieces. But it would be a stretch to assert that for Pascal his incoherent confession played only this role. Its meaning is quite obvious: it is an expression of a spiritual upheaval, a testimony to himself that from now on he decided to live a new life. Indeed, Pascal's confession did not remain only on paper: it became a real program for the last five or six years of his existence. The best objection to Pascal's insanity is the literary struggle he started shortly thereafter against the Jesuits.

The gradual preparation of the described coup began in the summer of 1654. Long before the memorable November night, in September of the same year, Pascal "opened his soul" to his younger sister Jacqueline "in such a pitiful way that he touched her to the depths of her soul."

In general, Jacqueline Pascal undoubtedly played a very prominent role in her brother's second conversion. The sister only repaid her brother for her own conversion, which took place under his influence. A significant role was also played by Pascal's attitude towards the girl Roanes, who in turn retired from the world under the influence of Pascal's conversations and letters. In the most critical era of Pascal's life, when he was still hesitating between his love for the maiden Roanes and his religious chastity, he turned to his sister Jacqueline for advice and consolation - and it is easy to guess what advice an exalted girl who buried her own youth in a monastery could give him ...

In 1652, two years before his final conversion, Pascal was not particularly pleased with his sister's hermitage and did not even want to give Jacqueline the share of the inheritance due to her, fearing that she would give all her property to the monastery. An eloquent letter from Jacqueline has survived, in which she begs her brother not to oppose her calling. “I am addressing you,” wrote Jacqueline on March 5, 1652, “as a person on whom my fate depends to a certain extent, in order to tell you: do not take from me what you cannot reward. The Lord took advantage of you in order to instill in me the first impressions of his grace ... do not interfere with those who do good, and if you do not have the strength to follow me, then at least do not hold me back; I ask you not to destroy what you have built. " Then, in a different tone, Jacqueline adds: "I expect from you this proof of your friendship with me and ask you to visit me on the day of my betrothal (that is, on the day of taking a monastic vow), which will take place on the day of Trinity."

About the influence that Jacqueline Pascal had on the final conversion of her brother, there is still the following information, reported by Pascal's niece.

“When my uncle,” she writes, “decided to buy a post and get married, he consulted about this with my aunt, who took monasticism, who lamented that her brother, who had introduced her to the vanity and vanity of the world, was abyss. She often persuaded him to give up his intentions. Uncle listened attentively and postponed the final decision from day to day. Finally, on the day of the conception of St. Virgin, December 8, he went to his aunt and talked to her. When they stopped calling for the sermon, he entered the church to listen to the preacher. The preacher was in the pulpit, and the aunt could not have time to talk to him. The sermon was about the conception of the holy Virgin, about the beginning of the Christian life, about how important it is for a Christian to observe holiness, without burdening himself with offices and marriage ties. The preacher spoke with great power. My uncle, imagining that all this was said for his own sake, took this sermon very personally. My aunt, as best she could, tried to kindle this new flame in him, and after a few days my uncle decided to make a final break with the light. He went to the village to get to know everyone, since up to that time he received many guests and made visits. He succeeded, and he severed all ties with secular acquaintances. "

Comparing all the stories about Pascal's conversion, it is not difficult to draw in general terms a picture of the internal upheaval that took place in him.

Back in the summer of 1653, Jacqueline wrote to her elder sister's husband that her prayers for her poor brother would be heard. The extent to which Pascal began to submit to the influence of his exalted sister, who resembled him so much in intelligence, talents and even appearance, can be seen from the fact that when Pascal finally entered Port-Royal and repented under the leadership of Director Senglen, the latter, having become ill, transferred Pascal to the spiritual care of his sister Euphemia is the name by which Jacqueline was known in this Jansenist community. In the fall of 1654, Pascal visited Jacqueline so often that, in her own words, a whole volume could be compiled from their conversations. By all appearances, the incident on the Neuilly bridge was only an impetus for the conversion of Pascal and no more powerful than the one that was given by the preaching that amazed him, he heard after the night when he, breathless with delight and reverence, wrote his incoherent testament , or confession, to yourself. Pascal used the last months of 1654 to finalize his nature and at the beginning of 1655 was already a mystic in the full sense of the word.

"LETTERS TO THE PROVINCIAL"

Even in the era of his first conversion, Pascal became close to some of the Jansenists. In the last years of his life, he became one of the most prominent fighters of the Jansenist movement.

The founder of Jansenism was the Dutchman Karl Jansen, or Jansenius, who was Bishop of Ypres at the beginning of the 17th century, a man of impeccable morality, a notorious enemy of the Jesuits, who fought all his life against their teachings and against Jesuit morality. At that time Lessius and Molina were considered the pillars of the Jesuits, and by the name of this last Jesuits they were often even called Molinists.

While the Jesuits argued that "grace" belongs to all Christians and that the most serious sins can be covered with repentance, Jansenius began to argue that "grace" belongs only to the elect, and demanded from his followers the most severe virtue. His teaching is in many ways similar to Calvinism.

Jansenism spread very quickly in France and especially in Paris. Many scholars and noble people, both secular and spiritual, began to settle in Port Royal, near the Latin Quarter, under the name of hermits (solitaira), engaging in their solitude in theological issues, manual labor and raising children. Arnault, Duke de Liancourt and subsequently Pascal were the most prominent representatives of the sect. The Jesuits were worried. In addition to raising dogmatic and moral questions by the Jansenists, the Jesuits were simply afraid of competition in the purely material sphere. Before the rise of Jansenism, all schools were in the hands of the Jesuits; now Jansenist educational institutions appeared in Port Royal, where children from the upper bourgeoisie and from the nobility went. People began to flock to confession to the Jansenists from all over Paris; among their followers were many courtiers. For the Jesuit schools and confessions, this was a terrible blow.

The government was hostile to Jansenism. Richelieu could not forgive Jansenius for his pamphlet "Mars of Gali", in which the founder of the sect sharply reprimanded the cardinal for his alliance with the Protestant powers. Subsequently, Louis XIV was even less disposed towards the Jansenists, since the Jesuits were able to convince him that the new sect was undermining the foundations of the monarchical system.

In Paris, the struggle between Jansenists and Jesuits began as early as 1643, when the Jesuits announced from the pulpits that Jansenius was "digested Calvin," and his disciples were called "frogs born in the ooze of the Geneva swamp." Ten years later, Pope Innocent X, obeying the influence of the Jesuits, issued a bull, in which Jansen's teachings were condemned as heretical. Still later, just at the time when Pascal began his reclusive life at Port-Royal, a clash occurred, which stirred up all of Paris.

Among the aristocrats who had relations with the Jansenists was the Duke de Liancourt, who constantly visited the Porto-Royal hermits, but did not break ties with the dominant church. The Duke of Liancourt respected the Jansenists so much that he not only gave refuge to two persecuted Jansenists in his house, but even gave his granddaughter to be raised in a Porto-Royal convent, where, as you know, Pascal's sister was also among the nuns. The Jesuits could not forgive the duke for such actions.

In January 1655, when the Duke appeared at St. Sulpicia confessed, the Jesuit who confessed it said: “You told me your sins, but you hid the main thing. First, you are hiding a heretic in your house; secondly, you sent your granddaughter to Port Royal, and in general you have connections with these people. You must repent, and, moreover, not secretly, but publicly. " The duke remained silent, calmly left the temple, but never returned. This incident caused a great stir, especially since its hero was a nobleman, a peer of France.

This did not end there.

One of the leaders of the Jansenist movement, Arnault, wrote a "Letter to a noble person", in which he very sharply criticized the Jesuit who refused to absolve such a worthy person as the Duke de Liancourt. Then the Jesuits, in turn, issued a number of pamphlets against Arno, and the latter answered them with a new "Letter to the Peer of France." Soon from the church pulpit, the dispute moved to the Sorbonne chair, and from December 1, 1655 to January 31, 1656, a series of debates took place in this temple of science, so stormy that the French writer Sainte-Beuve compares them to the noisiest political meetings of 1815. The debate was conducted in the then barbaric Latin dialect, and the orators' expressions were such that the Sorbonne syndicate constantly had to resort to the solemn formula: Domine mi, importo tibi silentium (sir, I command you to be silent). The majority have violently demanded the conclusion of the debate several times; shouts were heard: conclude, concludatur (finish). Despite the very strong opposition of the minority, Arnault was convicted and solemnly expelled from the Sorbonne.

In the then Parisian society, they were as much interested in such debates as they are now interested in the most important political issues. Pascal could not remain indifferent in this dispute. Once in the company of his new friends, the hermits of Port-Royal, Pascal was keenly interested in the opinions of some of his interlocutors. One of them said that it would be extremely useful to explain to an ignorant public that all these disputes at the Sorbonne are not based on any serious data, but on empty gimmicks. Everyone approved of this idea and insisted that Arno write a serious defense speech. "Really," they said to him, "you will allow to be condemned as a schoolboy, and not say a word in your defense, even if only in order to familiarize the public with what is the matter?" Arno tried to write and read it in the company of friends, but no one made a single approving remark. “I see,” said Arno, “that you don’t like it, however, I myself am aware that I must write in the wrong way.” And turning to Pascal, he added: "But you, you are young, you should have done something." Pascal, who has not yet tested his strength in this new field, said that he would try to write a draft answer, but hoped that there would be people who would correct his imperfect work. The next day, Pascal set to work and, as usual, soon became carried away by it. Instead of an essay or program, he wrote a letter (January 23, 1656), which he read in the company of his Port-Royal friends. He had not yet read half of it when Arno exclaimed: "Excellent! .. Everyone will like it, we need to print it." All those present were of the same opinion. This is the origin of the first of the famous "Letters to the Provincial". Gradually carried away by his topic, Pascal rummaged through the libraries, pulling out the dusty creations of the Spanish, French, German Jesuits and putting them on the pillory. In March 1657, his last letter appeared. Can it be assumed that these letters belonged to a madman?

These "Letters written by Louis de Montalt to his provincial friend and to the venerable Jesuit fathers," these splendid pamphlets against Jesuit dogma and morality were and remain the most powerful theological polemic ever directed against the disciples of Loyola and Molina.

Blaise Pascal. Letters to the provincial. Elsevier, 1657

The impression made by these letters was extraordinary. "Letters to the Provincial" was printed mainly in a secret printing house located in one of the watermills, which then abounded in Paris. The printing was taken over by Pierre Lepeti, the famous bookseller and royal typographer, who used for this purpose some kind of special printing ink, invented by himself, which had the property of drying almost instantly, which made it possible to print "Letters" an hour before they were sent. “Never before,” writes one historian and opponent of Jansenism, the Jesuit Daniel, “has the post office ever made so much money. Copies were sent to all the cities of the kingdom, and although I was very little known at Port Royal, I received in one of the Breton city where I was then a large package in my name, and delivery was paid.

One can imagine the wrath of the Jesuits and their patrons. First of all, searches and arrests began everywhere in order to find the printer. By order of the king, Charles Savro, one of the por-royal booksellers, was arrested. The interrogation was carried out by the "criminal lieutenant" Tardiff, who also interrogated Savro's wife and clerks, but achieved nothing. Tardiff also searched Pierre Lepety's house, but was no more successful, because when the royal agents arrived at Lepety's house, his wife ran to the printing house, grabbed the heavy printing forms and, hiding them under an apron, demolished a neighbor whose the same night, 300 copies of the second letter were printed, and then another 1200. Printing was very expensive, but it sold one sous per letter so many copies that the expense was paid in excess.

Not only the police, but also the public were eager to find out who this mysterious Louis Montalt was, the author of Letters to the Provincial. It never occurred to anyone to consider Pascal the author, and the Letters were attributed first to Gomberville, then to Abbot Leroy. Pascal at that time lived near Luxembourg, in a house opposite the gates of Saint-Michel. This refuge was offered to Pascal by the poet Patrick, an orderly of the Duke of Orleans, but for greater safety Pascal moved to a small hotel under the King David company, located behind the Sorbonne, just opposite the Jesuit college. "Like a skillful general," remarks Sainte-Beuve, "he came to a standstill face to face with the enemy." The husband of his elder sister, Perrier, who came to Paris on business, settled in the same hotel. One Jesuit, Freta, a relative of Perier, came to visit the latter and warned him in a kindred way about the rumors that had finally spread about Pascal's authorship. Perrier pretended to be amazed and said that it was all fiction; and meanwhile, at that very moment, behind the half-open canopy covering his bed, there were ten and two copies of the seventh and eighth Letters, which had just been printed. When the Jesuit left, Perrier ran to Pascal and, having told him what was the matter, advised him to beware even more of the former. Pascal, however, managed to escape the Bastille.

It was more difficult to avoid the thunders against Pascal's work. In 1660, at the behest of the king, the Letters of the alleged Montalt were examined by a commission of four bishops and nine doctors of the Sorbonne. The commission recognized that the Letters contained all of Jansen's false teachings, as well as opinions that were offensive to the pope, bishops, king, the theological faculty of Paris and some monastic orders. This statement was communicated to the Council of State, which ordered that the letters be torn up and burned by the executioner's hand. Some provincial parliaments spoke in the same spirit, but the latter were far from sincere. Thus, the parliament in E (Aix) ordered the burning of the Letters, but the members of this judicial institution themselves readily read the Letters, and none of them dared to donate their copy for public execution. Finally, one of the judges guessed and gave his former almanac, ordering to inscribe the title "Letters" on the binding. This innocent almanac was publicly burned.

The meaning of Pascal's "Letters" can be judged by the following event. As soon as the first letters appeared, one of the Rouen preachers hastened to declare from the pulpit that the author of the Letters is a dangerous heretic, slandering the venerable Jesuit Fathers. Then the Rouen clergy elected a commission from among their midst to check the quotations given in the Letters. The quotes turned out to be in complete agreement with the quoted originals, convinced of this, the Rouen priests wrote a letter to the priests of Paris, asking them to come together to publicly condemn the abominations preached by the Jesuits. In 1656, a congress did indeed take place in Paris, at which the invitation of the Rouen clergy to declare publicly that "the reading of Jesuit books horrified the audience" was accepted. “We were forced,” the priests of Rouen wrote, “to shut up our ears, as the fathers of the Council of Nicaea once did, who did not want to listen to the blasphemy of Arius. Each of us zealously wished to punish these miserable scribblers who perverted the truths of the Gospels and introduced morality, which honest pagans and good Turks would be ashamed of. " In the eyes of public opinion, Pascal's case was thus won even before his book was publicly burned.

"THOUGHTS" PASCAL. THE LAST YEARS OF PASCAL'S LIFE

Just at the time when Pascal was writing his "Letters to the Provincial", an event occurred that was very consistent with his enthusiastic mood and taken by him as a direct manifestation of God's grace in relation to him - his own person. This event proves once again that you can combine seemingly conflicting spiritual qualities: remarkable insight of the mind with amazing gullibility.

The daughter of Pascal's older sister, that is, his niece Margarita Perier, suffered from a very malignant fistula of the lacrimal gland. According to her mother, the fistula was so persistent that pus came out not only from the eye, but from the girl's nose and mouth, and the most skillful surgeons in Paris considered this wound incurable. All that remained was to resort to the "miracle". In the Por-Royal there was a nail that bore the name of the "holy thorns": they were assured that this nail was taken from the crown of thorns of Christ. It is very possible that the cause of the girl's illness was the clogging of the eye with the tip of the needle and that the wonderful nail was simply magnetic, and therefore could remove the splinter. One way or another, but Madame Perrier assures that her daughter was healed "instantly", with one touch of the "holy thorns". Lovers of the miraculous, of course, will not doubt the veracity of these words of the mother, who was present at the healing and generally wrote truthfully about everything. But impartial historical research proves that in such cases, the most truthful people are capable of exaggerating. Gilberte's testimony is directly refuted by a letter from her younger sister, the Porto-Royal nun Jacqueline (sister of Euphemia). The latter wrote about the chagrin she experienced over the fact that the father of her sick niece, Perrier, out of lack of faith, was not present at the healing and left without waiting for the result. In the same letter, Jacqueline reports that the girl was taken to the monastery and applied to the “holy thorns” for six days in a row. This is not at all like an instant miracle.

One way or another, but all Paris spoke about this "miracle".

“This miracle,” explains Madame Perrier, “was so genuine that everyone recognized it and it was witnessed by famous doctors and skillful surgeons and approved by a solemn decree of the church.”

After that, it is not surprising that Pascal believed in such an undeniable and even officially "approved" miracle. This is not enough. In view of the fact that Pascal's niece was his goddaughter, that is, a spiritual daughter, Pascal took the grace poured out on her at his own expense. “My brother,” writes Madame Perrier, “was extremely comforted by the fact that God's power was manifested with such obviousness at a time when faith seemed to be extinguished in the hearts of most people. His joy was so great that his mind gave himself over to this miracle entirely, and he had many amazing thoughts about miracles, which, having presented religion for him in a new light, doubled the love and respect that he always had for the objects of faith. "

How much his mind has submitted to the influence of this "miracle" is shown by many of Pascal's actions: for example, he even changed his seal, choosing an eye surrounded by a crown of thorns as his coat of arms. The most popular of Pascal's works, his "Thoughts" ("Pensées"), in many places is an echo of the miracle of the "holy thorns".

Title page of the first edition of "Thoughts"

Impressed by this event, Pascal, who until then had limited his theological activity to polemics with the Jesuits, decided to write something like an extensive apology for Christianity. Essays on this apology and compiled a collection known as Pascal's "Thoughts".

Having long since renounced all worldly pleasures, Pascal more and more indulged in the harsh life of an ascetic. He went so far as to consider the most natural human feelings criminal: for example, he condemned his sister Gilberte Perrier for the fact that, in his opinion, she caressed her children too often, and insisted that maternal affection seemed to develop in children only fainthearted. Pascal not only banished all luxury and comforts in his own environment, but, not content with his organic ailments, deliberately inflicted new physical suffering on himself. Often he put on an iron belt with points on his naked body, and as soon as he had any "idle" thought or desire to give himself the slightest pleasure, Pascal struck with his elbows on the belt so that the points pierced the body. This habit seemed so useful to him that he kept it until his death and did so even in the last years of his life, when he constantly suffered to such an extent that he could neither read nor write. Sometimes he had to do nothing or walk, and at this time he was constantly afraid that idleness would lead him astray.

In his setting, Pascal introduced such simplicity that in his room there was not the slightest rug or anything superfluous. Too harsh life soon led to the fact that Pascal returned to all the illnesses that he suffered in adolescence. First of all, the toothache returned, and with it insomnia.

One night, tormented by a severe toothache, Pascal, completely without any preliminary intention, began to think about questions concerning the properties of the so-called cycloid, a curved line indicating the path traversed by a point of a circle rolling in a straight line, for example, a wheel. One thought was followed by another, a whole chain of theorems was formed. Pascal calculated as if unconsciously and was himself amazed at his discoveries. But he had given up mathematics long ago. Long before that, he stopped correspondence with Fermat, writing to the latter that he was completely disillusioned with mathematics, that he considered it an interesting but useless exercise. This time, however, mathematical discoveries were imposed on his mind, as it were, against his will, and Pascal had the idea of consulting one of his Porto-royal friends. Having received the advice “to print what was inspired by God,” Pascal finally decided to take up the pen.

Augustin Pageout. Pascal studying cycloid. Louvre

He began to write with extraordinary speed. The entire study was written in eight days, and Pascal wrote immediately, without rewriting. Two printing houses barely kept up with him, and the sheets that had just been written were immediately handed over to the set. Thus, the last scientific works of Pascal were published. This remarkable study of the cycloid brought Pascal closer to the discovery of differential calculus, that is, the analysis of infinitesimal quantities, but still the honor of this discovery went not to him, but to Leibniz and Newton. Had Pascal been healthier in mind and body, he would undoubtedly have completed his work. In Pascal, we already see a completely clear idea of infinite quantities, but, instead of developing it and applying it in mathematics, Pascal gave a broad place to the infinite only in his apology for Christianity.

The last years of Pascal's life were a series of continuous physical suffering. He endured them with amazing heroism and even added unnecessary suffering to them.

Pascal strove to make even the most elementary pleasures, like gustatory sensations, impossible and inaccessible for himself. Constant illnesses forced him against his will to eat not too coarse food. But the simplest table already seemed to him a luxury, and Pascal tried to swallow the food so hastily that he would not have time to recognize its taste. Both sisters - not only Gilberte, but even the nun Jacqueline-Euphemia - sometimes tried to cook him something tasty, knowing that their brother was susceptible to loss of appetite. But if Pascal was asked if he liked the food, he replied: "Why did you not warn me, I did not pay any attention to the taste." If someone began to praise some food in his presence, Pascal could not stand it and called this attitude to food "sensuality." Although his table was already quite simple, Pascal found it too sophisticated and said: "It is bad and impermissible to eat in order to indulge your taste." In his youth, Pascal loved sweets and stimulants; now he would not allow himself to cook any sauce or stew, and there was no way he could be persuaded to eat an orange. Moreover, he always took a certain amount of food, which he set for himself, assuring him that this was exactly what was needed for his stomach. No matter how strong his appetite was, Pascal did not allow himself to eat more and, on the contrary, even with a complete loss of appetite, he forcibly stuffed himself with food until he ate the prescribed portion. When asked why he tortured himself so much, Pascal replied: "We must satisfy the needs of the stomach, and not the whims of the tongue." Pascal showed no less firmness when he had to swallow disgusting potions, which were then in great use. He always adhered to the orders of doctors unquestioningly and did not show the slightest sign of disgust. When those around him expressed their amazement, he laughed, saying: “I don’t understand how you can find disgust when you take the medicine voluntarily and if you are warned about its bad taste. Disgust is only in the case of violence or surprise. "

In the last years of his life, Pascal paid special attention to charity.

Reflections on helping the poor led Pascal to even one highly practical idea. Pascal has the honor of organizing one of the cheapest modes of travel. He was the first in France and in almost all of Europe to come up with the idea of organizing the movement of "five-kopeck carriages", that is, omnibuses. At the same time, Pascal had in mind not only to reduce the cost of transportation for poor people, but also to collect an amount sufficient for any serious help to those in need. The structure of this enterprise was influenced by Pascal's mathematical mind, who immediately appreciated the financial side of the matter, in the success of which many refused to believe.

The idea of this undertaking appeared to Pascal on the following occasion. In 1662 a terrible famine raged in Blois. Energetic appeals to benefactors were printed in Paris. These proclamations described horrors from which the hair stands on end. Pascal, not being rich and unable to send any large sum to the starving, worked out a plan for the enterprise, and at the end of January 1662, under his leadership, a society of contractors was formed, who arranged communication in omnibuses along the main streets of Paris. During negotiations on this case, Pascal demanded that the contractors give him a deposit of three hundred rubles in order to immediately send it to those in need. Upon learning of this intention of Pascal, his relatives began to dissuade him, noting that the case had just been established, that it might only cause losses and that it was necessary to wait at least next year. To this Pascal objected: “I don't see any difficulty here. If there is a loss, I will compensate from my entire fortune, but there is no way to wait until next year, because need does not wait. " However, the contractors did not agree to give in advance, and Pascal had to limit himself to sending the small sums he had.

Pascal very often urged his older sister to devote herself to helping the poor and to educate her children in the same spirit. The sister replied that each person should first of all take care of his family. “You just lack goodwill,” Pascal argued. "You could help the poor without harming your family affairs." When Pascal was objected that private charity is a drop in the ocean and that the poor should be cared for by society and the state, he argued with this most energetic image. “We are called,” he said, “not to the general, but to the particular. The best way to alleviate poverty is to help the poor, that is, to each according to his strength, instead of setting up big plans. " Pascal explained that he is not at all opposed to state and public charity, but, in his words, "great enterprises should be provided to a few persons appointed for that, while daily and constant assistance to the poor should be the work and vocation of each and every one."

Pascal's moral purity in many cases brought him to extremes. In the words of his sister: “It's incredible how scrupulous he was in this regard. I was constantly afraid to say something superfluous: he knew how to find reprehensible even in such conversations, which I considered very innocent. If I happened to say, for example, that I had seen a beautiful woman somewhere, he would get angry, saying that one should never have such conversations in the presence of lackeys and young people, because one cannot know what thoughts might appear in them. " ...

Three months before Pascal's death, an incident happened to him, testifying to the fact that in the depths of this ascetic soul were hidden human feelings and impulses, which he suppressed in himself in all possible ways.

One day Pascal returned home from Mass from the Church of St. Sulpicia, when suddenly a girl of about fifteen of striking beauty approached him and asked him for alms. Pascal gazed at her, and a feeling of pity such as he had never felt before came over him. He understood what danger threatens this beggar beauty in a big city full of temptations and debauchery.

- Who are you and what made you beg? Pascal asked.

The girl began to say that she was a village woman, that her father had died, and her mother was sick in the Hotel Dieu.

Pascal, driven not only by his religious feelings, but also by a purely earthly feeling of compassion for the young beautiful creature, took the girl to one, personally unknown to him, but enjoying good fame, a priest. He left him money, asking him to take care of this girl and carefully protect her from all harm. The next day, he sent a woman to the priest, whom he also gave money to buy the girl a dress and everything she needed. The girl was dressed up, and Pascal found her a place as a servant in a good family. The priest tried to find out the name of the benefactor, but he was told that the name should remain unknown, and only after Pascal's death his sister exposed this secret.

Pascal was sometimes reproached for dryness, reasoning and even heartlessness, referring to the fact that he, apparently, was not much touched even by the death of his younger sister Jacqueline, whom he loved dearly. Jacqueline died ten months earlier than Pascal, and who knows if her death did not hasten the end of his own illness. Jacqueline's death was the result of a nervous shock she experienced after she was forced to sign a confession of faith contrary to her conscience. This was in the era of persecution by the Jesuits and the court against the Jansenists, when nuns suspected of Jansenism were often expelled from monasteries by special royal command. When Pascal was informed about the death of his younger sister, he only said: "God grant that we die just as well." When his elder sister indulged in grief over their common loss, Pascal became angry and said that we should praise God for the fact that he rewarded so well for the small services rendered to him. This, however, is hardly enough to draw the conclusion about Pascal's heartlessness. Pascal evidently made an effort to suppress or at least change all human attachments in himself, giving them a direction consistent, in his opinion, with the purest Christian morality. There are facts proving that such an internal breakdown cost Pascal himself very dearly and that even those closest to him sometimes made mistakes in him. Here is what his older sister writes about this, talking about the time when the younger was alive, who knew her brother best of all and knew how to understand him already because of the extreme kinship of his nature with her own: “Not only did he himself not want to be attached to others, - writes Gilbert, - but did not allow others to become attached to him. Not knowing this, I sometimes marveled and told my sister, complaining that my brother did not love me and that, apparently, I was causing him displeasure, even when I courted him in the most affectionate way during his illness. My sister told me that I was wrong, that she knew the opposite, that my brother loved me as much as I could.

Soon I was convinced of this myself, since there was hardly the slightest case when I needed any help from my brother, he was in a hurry to provide it with such care and love that there could be no doubt about his strong feelings for me. "

Nevertheless, the brother's relationship with those around him often seemed mysterious to her sister. It was only after Pascal's death that she solved the mystery when she read a little note he had written for himself. It turned out that Pascal was trying with all his might so that no one could feel affection for him. “It should not,” he wrote, “that someone should fall in love with me, even if it was a completely voluntary and pleasant attraction. I will deceive the expectations of those in whom such a desire will appear, since I am the end of personality and I cannot satisfy anyone. Am I not ready to die? So the object of their affection will die. It would be dishonest on my part to make them believe any lie, even if I convinced someone of this lie in the most tender way and at least they believed me with pleasure, and at least I myself experienced a feeling of pleasure. It would be dishonest, therefore, if I induced someone to love me. If I encourage people to become attached to me, I must warn those who are willing to believe this lie not to believe me. Instead of being attached to me, let them try to please God. "

It seems that in this confession one should look for a true psychological solution to the relationship that was established in the last years of Pascal's life between him and the girl Roannez, who retired to the Port-Royal convent. Pascal had a truly fatal influence on the fate of this unfortunate girl.

While he was alive, the sister of the Duke of Roanesa was completely subordinate to his leadership. Unfortunately, no letters from her to Pascal have survived; however, they were probably written in the same godly spirit that dominates Pascal's letters to her. An image of Pascal's true feelings for this aristocrat should be sought not in letters, but in Pascal's Thoughts. In one place in his Thoughts, he says: “A lonely person is something imperfect, he must find another in order to be completely happy. Often he is looking for an equal to himself in position. But sometimes it also happens that they look higher than themselves and feel that the flame is kindling, not daring to tell the one who aroused it! When you love a woman above yourself in rank, ambition sometimes joins love at first; but soon love prevails over everything. This is a tyrant who does not tolerate comrades: he wants to be one, all passions must obey him. "

Under the influence of Pascal, the maiden Roannez entered Port-Royal as a novice in 1657, fleeing from her mother for this purpose. She took a vow of virginity, but did not manage to get her hair cut, because her relatives obtained a cabinet decree from the king, forcing the maiden Roanes to return to her family. Here she lived until Pascal's death in seclusion, shunning the light and corresponding with Pascal, his sisters and Abbot Senglen, Pascal's spiritual leader. After Pascal's death, in 1667, this unfortunate girl finally decided to take her vow of virginity and married the Duke de Feuillade. The Jansenists anathematized her; her marriage was called "the fall," and this noble woman, gentle mother and exemplary wife fell prey to fanaticism. She was tormented by eternal remorse, and she once said that she would rather be paralyzed in the Port Royal hospital than live in contentment among her family. Of her children, some died in early childhood, others were dwarfs or freaks. Her only son, who survived to old age, did not leave offspring, and she herself died of breast cancer. We can safely say that Pascal's love brought her some misfortunes.

In the last years of his life, Pascal surprised everyone with his gentleness, childish humility and extraordinary meekness. Long before Leo Tolstoy, he condemned all resistance to evil by violence. Perfectly aware of the evil of the then political system, he, however, sharply condemned the opposition and said that internecine war is the greatest sin that can be committed in relation to neighbors. Pascal himself described himself as follows: “I love poverty because Christ loved it. I love wealth because it gives me the opportunity to help the unfortunate. I am faithful to everyone. I do not repay evil for evil, but I wish everyone the same state as mine, when you feel neither evil nor good from people. I try to be fair, sincere, I have tender feelings for those whom God has united with me in a more intimate way. "

Distinguished by a natural liveliness of character, Pascal often got angry and expressed impatience, but as soon as he noticed this behind him, he immediately became meek: “This is a child; he is submissive like a child ”- said the priest Berier about him. Two months before his death, Pascal began to suffer from a complete loss of appetite and felt a breakdown. At this time, Pascal had one poor man with his wife and all the household. Pascal gave this man a room and heating, but did not accept any services from him or his wife, but did it directly out of compassion for the poor family. When Pascal's relatives reprimanded him for this kind of charity, he objected: “How can you say that I do not use any of the services of these people. It would be very unpleasant for me to be completely alone, but now I am not alone. "

Meanwhile, the son of a man adopted by Pascal fell ill with smallpox. Pascal was often visited by his older sister, since, being ill, he could not do without her services. Pascal was afraid that his sister would infect her children with smallpox: one way or another, he had to part with his family. But Pascal did not dare to remove the sick boy, and although he himself was sick, he reasoned like this: "The boy's disease is more dangerous than mine and I am older than him, and therefore it is easier to bear the change of place." On June 29, Pascal left his home so as not to return there.

House in Rue Neuve-Saint-Etienne where Blaise Pascal died

He settled in his sister's house on the rue Saint-Etienne, in a small outbuilding, where there was a room with two windows closed with iron bars.

Three days after this move, Pascal felt severe colic that deprived him of sleep. But, possessing amazing willpower, he endured suffering without a murmur, he took medicine himself and did not allow himself to be rendered the slightest superfluous service. The doctors said that the patient's pulse was good, there was no fever, and, according to them, there was not the slightest danger. However, on the fourth day, the colic intensified so much that Pascal ordered to send for a priest and confessed. A rumor about this soon spread among his friends, and many came to visit the sick man. Even the doctors finally got alarmed, and one of them said that he did not expect such suspiciousness from Pascal. This remark angered Pascal. “I wanted to receive communion,” he said, “but you were surprised that I confessed. I am afraid to surprise you even more and I will postpone it better. "

Doctors continued to insist that the disease was not dangerous. And there really was a kind of temporary relief, so that Pascal began to walk a little. Nevertheless, Pascal was aware of the danger and confessed several times. He wrote a will, in which he bequeathed most of the property to the poor.

“If your husband were in Paris,” he said to his sister, “I would have bequeathed everything to the poor, since I am sure of his consent. Then, on reflection, he added: "Where does it come from that I have never done anything for the poor, although I have always loved them?"

The sister objected:

- But you never had a big fortune, and there was nothing to give from.

“No,” Pascal said, “if I didn’t have a fortune, I had to give my time and work, and I didn’t. If the doctors are right and I recover from this illness, I am determined to devote the rest of my life to the poor.

Pascal's acquaintances were amazed at the patience with which he endured the most severe pains.

“I’m afraid of getting well,” Pascal replied, “because I know the dangers of health and the benefits of illness.

When they felt sorry for him, Pascal objected:

- Do not be sorry, illness is the natural state of a Christian, because he must suffer, must deprive himself of all benefits and sensual pleasures.

Doctors ordered Pascal to drink mineral waters, but on August 14 he felt a severe headache and resolutely demanded a priest.

“Nobody sees my illness,” he said, “and therefore everyone is deceived: my headache is something extraordinary.

This was almost his first complaint about his suffering; but the doctors objected that the headache was "from water vapor" and that it would soon pass. Then Pascal said:

- If they do not want to show me this mercy and give me communion, I will replace communion with some good deed. I ask you to find some poor patient and on purpose to hire a nurse for him at my expense, who would look after him in the same way as I did. I want there to be not the slightest difference between him and me, because when I think about the fact that I am so cared for and that there are many poor people who are more suffering than me and need the bare essentials, this thought makes me suffer. unbearable.

Pascal's sister immediately sent to the priest, asking if there was any sick person who could be brought? This was not found; then Pascal demanded that he himself be carried to the hospital of the terminally ill.

“I want to die among the sick,” he said.

The sister objected that the doctors would resist his wish; this made Pascal extremely angry. The patient was only reassured with the promise that he would be transferred when he felt a little better.

Meanwhile, the headache inflicted hellish torment on Pascal. On August 17, he asked to convene a council of doctors, but added:

“I'm afraid I'm making it too difficult with this request.

Doctors told the patient to drink serum, claiming that his illness was "a migraine combined with strong water vapor."

But Pascal did not believe it, and even his sister saw that his brother was very ill. Without saying a word to him, she sent for candles and everything that was required for communion and unction.

About midnight Pascal went into convulsions; when they stopped, he lay as if dead. At this time, a priest appeared, who, entering the room, exclaimed loudly: "This is the one you so desired." This exclamation brought Pascal to consciousness; he made an effort and stood up. He burst into tears as he communed. Pascal's last words were: "May God never leave me."

Convulsions resumed, he lost consciousness and, after a 24-hour agony, died on August 19, 1662, thirty-nine years old.

An autopsy of Pascal's body revealed damage to the meninges and digestive organs. The insides were struck with gangrenous inflammation. The skull turned out to be almost without any sutures, except for the arrow suture: this condition of the skull was probably the cause of the constant headaches that Pascal suffered from the age of eighteen. There was a kind of bone growth on the crown of the head; not a trace remained of the crown suture. The brain was extremely large, very heavy and dense. On the inner side of the skull, opposite the cerebral ventricles, there were two depressions, like fingerprints, filled with curdled blood and purulent matter. Gangrenous inflammation began in the dura mater of the brain.

Pascal was buried in the church of St. Etienne. Madame Jeanlis, in her memoirs, assures that the Duke of Orleans, in need of a skeleton for his alchemical experiments, ordered the bones of Pascal to be dug. This fable was repeated by Michelet in his History of the Revolution, but, as has now been fully proven, it is the fruit of the imagination of a witty writer.

PASCAL'S PHILOSOPHY

Monument to Pascal on the Saint-Jacques tower in Paris

Pascal did not leave behind a single integral philosophical treatise, nevertheless, in the history of philosophy, he occupies a quite definite place. His worldview, it seems, can most accurately be defined as Christian skepticism. In the history of Christianity, Pascal plays the same role as the author of Ecclesiastes in the history of Judaism and Pyrrho in the history of the classical world.

In everything that concerns Christian teaching, Pascal is a sincere and unconditional believer. He does not allow the slightest doubt either about dogma or about miracles and other external manifestations of Christianity. Otherwise, he is a complete skeptic. Pascal is ready to doubt the power of the human mind, and the meaning of material goods, and the dignity of human institutions.

Pascal's "Thoughts" were often compared with Montaigne's "Experiments" and with the philosophical writings of Descartes. Pascal borrowed several thoughts from Montaigne, conveying them in his own way and expressing them in his condensed, fragmentary, but at the same time figurative and fiery syllable; Pascal agrees with Descartes only on the question of automatism, and even in that he recognizes, like Descartes, our consciousness as an immutable proof of our existence. But the starting point of Pascal and in these cases differs from the Cartesian one. “I think, therefore I am,” says Descartes. “I sympathize with my neighbors, therefore, I exist, and not only materially, but also spiritually,” says Pascal, Descartes has a deity no more than an external force; for Pascal, deity is the beginning of love, at the same time external and present in us. Pascal scoffed at the Cartesian concept of deity no less than at his "subtlest matter." “I cannot forgive Descartes, - said Pascal, - that, while recognizing the divine principle, he at the same time perfectly manages without this principle. Descartes summons a deity only to give impetus to the world order, and then hides him nowhere. "

Pascal's skepticism is rooted primarily in his views on the insignificance of human mental and physical strength. His arguments are a strange mixture of poeticized mathematical definitions with biblical and classical imagery and comparisons. The philosopher constantly calls on the help of a geometer, theologian and even a poet.

Mathematical images dominate Pascal's mind. Whether he wants to portray the immensity of the universe - he, repeating the thoughts of medieval writers, expresses them in a condensed and strong geometric form: the universe is "an endless ball, the center of which is everywhere, and the circle is nowhere." Whether he is trying to prove the insignificance of human life and convince us that it makes no difference to him whether our life lasts ten more years or not, he explains his thought in a strictly mathematical form: "In view of infinite quantities, all finite are equal to each other." ... Does he want to convince us of the need to believe in a deity, - Pascal resorts to his theory of probability, evaluates various hypotheses in the same way as a player evaluates a game. "

Pascal invites us to wager and says that the one who asserts the existence of the divine principle can safely put everything on the line, since in any case he will not lose anything and will win everything.

Even when describing the attributes of the deity, Pascal, although he claims their incomprehensibility, tries to give mathematical comparisons. So, for example, to prove the possibility of an omnipresent being, he says: imagine a point moving at infinite speed. In the XI chapter of "Thoughts" Pascal expresses himself in the following way about the unknowability of a deity:

“A unit added to infinity does not increase it in the least. The finite is destroyed in the presence of the infinite and becomes pure insignificance. So is our mind before divine justice. We know that there is infinite, but we do not know its nature. We know that the statement that the series of numbers is finite is false. Therefore, there is an infinite number; but we do not know what this number is. It can be neither even nor odd, since by attaching a unit to it, we do not change its nature. " “We cognize not only existence, but also the nature of the finite, since we ourselves are finite and extended. We know the existence of the infinite, but not its nature, because, having, like us, extension, it has no boundaries. But we cannot cognize with the mind either the existence or the nature of the deity, because it has neither extension nor boundaries. "

Thus, long before Kant, Pascal understood the impossibility of proving the existence of a deity by any physical or metaphysical arguments. But while Kant was looking for the missing moral proof, Pascal believed that the only possible proof came from faith. “We know the existence of a deity through faith,” says Pascal, “and his nature through his glory,” which expresses itself in the lives of the righteous. Of course, there is a moral principle here as well, but it plays by no means the first and not exclusive role in Pascal.

Referring to St. Paul, Pascal says that Christians cannot be reproached for the fact that they cannot give any reasonable arguments in favor of their faith. After all, Christians, says Pascal, themselves declare that they believe in things that may seem absurd (stultitia, I Epistle, St. Paul to Corinth., Ch. I).

According to Pascal, each person is forced to choose one of the hypotheses: either there is a divine principle, or it is not. “You have to bet,” he says. - It does not depend on your will, you have to make a choice. If you have to choose, let's see what interests you less. You can lose two things: truth and goodness (if there is no deity). Let's weigh the loss and the profit. " And then Pascal tries to prove that in view of the possibility of infinitely large profits, you can safely put everything on the line.

But what if the mind refuses to submit to faith?

Leo Tolstoy would give us advice to “be simple”; Pascal had given similar advice earlier, but expressed himself much more sincere, bolder and more energetic. Pascal advises us to be stupid (abвtir), which, of course, cannot be understood in the literal sense, as did the French philosopher Cousin, who with the air of an intelligent man read Pascal a very strict reprimand for this advice. Pascal, obviously, wants to show with his advice that, in his opinion, the area of faith should be completely separated from the area of reason, which, Pascal thinks so, invades areas that are completely alien to him. Neither David nor Solomon, according to Pascal, reasoned in this way: "Emptiness exists, therefore there is God." Physics and even mathematics are powerless in matters of faith. "Instead of looking for new evidence of the existence of a deity," writes Pascal, "work to lessen your passions." To this end, Pascal even advises to subordinate himself to external discipline, for example, strictly observe the rituals, which he himself did at the end of his life. “Of course, it will make you dumb,” says Pascal. “But I’m afraid of that,” you say. - "Why? Pascal asks. - What will you lose? You will become honest, loyal, charitable, grateful, sincere, truthful. "

Thus, in the field of the positive, Pascal could not think of anything but subordinating reason to faith and curbing passions. But such is the inevitable result of all mysticism.

As for Pascal's skeptical attitude towards everything outside the objects of faith, it is eminently remarkable as a criticism of the human mind and all human affairs. Everything seems to him vain and insignificant, everything except human thought, since it is a reflection of deity. “Let,” he says, “man contemplates nature in all its sublime and full grandeur. Let him remove his gaze from the low objects around him, let him look at this dazzling luminary, set as an eternal torch, to illuminate the universe; let the earth appear to him as a point ... Our gaze stops, but the imagination goes on. This entire visible world is just an imperceptible line in the lush bosom of nature ... What is man in nature? Nothing compared to the infinite, everything compared to the insignificant-small: the middle between nothing and everything. "

Sometimes Pascal's judgments about human insignificance shine with a bitter humor, reminiscent of Schopenhauer.

Everything that people enjoy, everything that makes them proud, awakens ambition and insatiable aspirations - all this, says Pascal, is nothing more than a figment of our imagination. Without the help of an amazing capacity for self-delusion and for fooling other people, no wealth of the earth would have brought glory or visible prosperity.

“Our judges, - says Pascal, - perfectly understood this secret. Their red robes, their ermines, the chambers in which they judge, all this solemn appearance was urgently needed. If the healers did not have robes and the doctors of their quadrangular caps, they would not be able to fool people as they do now ... Our kings do not wear too luxuriant clothes, but they are followed by guards with halberds; all these trumpets and drums, the troops surrounding them - all this thrills even the brave. One must have a too refined mind to consider the great padishah surrounded by forty thousand janissaries to be the same person as everyone else ... If doctors really knew how to heal, they would not need caps: the greatness of science would in itself be worthy of respect. "

Pascal is no less skeptical of all kinds of human professions. “Chance,” he says, “makes people masons, warriors, roofers. The military say: only war is a real thing, all civilians are idlers ... Habit prevails over nature ... Sometimes, however, nature takes over, and instead of a soldier or a bricklayer, we see just a man. "

In the same way, insignificant and absurd, according to Pascal, are all habits, customs and other differences created by the climate, political boundaries, and the era. In Pascal's reasoning on this matter, we already see a harbinger of the philosophical teachings of the 18th century, he sometimes speaks almost in the language of Rousseau. "Instead of a permanent and lasting principle of justice," says Pascal, "we see the fantasies and whims of the Persians and Germans." “Three degrees of latitude overturn all jurisprudence, the meridian decides the essence of truth; the entry of Saturn into the constellation Leo marks the beginning of such and such a crime. Good justice, bounded by the river! Truth is on this side of the Pyrenees, lies are on the other side. "

A robber, an adulterer, a parricide - all in their time and place were considered virtuous people. Could there be anything more absurd than the fact that another person has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the river and because his prince quarreled with mine, although I myself have no quarrel with him? There are no doubt natural laws; but our beautiful twisted mind ruined everything. And yet how powerless this mind is! You don't need a cannon shot to interrupt our train of thought, the noise of a sharpening wheel is enough. Do not be surprised that this person thinks badly: a fly buzzes over his ear. Good master of the universe! Oh, comic hero!

What are human pleasures? Causes of new misfortunes, new sufferings. “When I,” says Pascal, “sometimes think about people's worries, about the dangers and misfortunes to which they subject themselves, I often say that all human disasters come from one thing, namely, from the fact that people do not know how to sit still. in the room. A man who has enough to live, if he knew how to stay at home, would not go to sea or to war. But when I, having found the source of our misfortunes, tried to discover the reason why people subject themselves to all these calamities, I saw that there is also some real benefit ... Let us imagine the best situation, for example, the position of a king. If he does not have entertainment and variety, the most prosperous life from our point of view will soon become sick of him. He will think about conspiracies, uprisings, death, and in the end he will become more miserable than the last of his subjects, who has the opportunity to diversify his life. Hence the universal passion for entertainment. That is why they are looking for games, women, wars, big positions. No hunter hunts for a hare for the sake of a hare. If he had been given this hare for free, he would not have taken it. People are looking for noise and fuss, distracting them from thoughts about the insignificance of our existence. The whole life passes in this way: we seek peace, overcoming obstacles, but as soon as we overcome them, peace becomes unbearable for us. A person is so unhappy that he misses even for no reason, simply because of his build, and he is so vain and petty that, when there are thousands of reasons for boredom and melancholy, some trifle like a billiard ball can amuse him. After all, tomorrow he will brag in the company of friends that he played better than his opponent. What does it mean to be chancellor, minister, etc.? It means to be in such a position, when from morning till night in the hall and in the office crowds of people huddle, preventing the lucky man from thinking about himself. Let him retire, preserving all his riches or even receiving more than before, he will be unhappy and abandoned, because no one now prevents him from thinking about himself. "

After all, what is a person? We do not know what the body is, nor what the spirit is; even less do we know how the spirit can be combined with the body. What is man - this judge of all things, a stupid earth worm, a vessel of truth, a cloaca of delusions, the glory and shame of the universe? Neither an angel nor an animal ... All life, all philosophy depends on the question: is our soul mortal or immortal? "It is possible," says Pascal, "not to develop the Copernican system, but the question of the immortality of the soul must certainly be resolved in one sense or another." And yet there are philosophers who build their systems completely independently of this question. It's amazing, says Pascal, to what indifference many people get in this case. “We are like travelers on a deserted island or criminals burdened with chains, who daily with complete indifference watch how one of their comrades is killed, knowing that their turn will come. What to think of a man sentenced to death, who, having only an hour to file a request for clemency and knowing that he can probably get a clemency, will spend that hour playing picket lines? Here is our portrait. Who can lead us out of this chaos? Neither skeptics, nor philosophers, nor dogmatists could do anything. A skeptic cannot doubt everything, for example, when he is pricked or burned; finally, he cannot doubt his doubt. The dogmatist builds a tower to the skies, but it collapses, and an abyss opens up under his feet. The mind, therefore, is powerless. Only the heart, only faith and love can lead us out of this abyss. "

This is, in general terms, Pascal's eloquent argumentation, which led him from skepticism to faith.

This is not the place to analyze the teachings of Pascal. Suffice it to note that all those manifestations of love for one's neighbor about which Pascal speaks do not in the least contradict the dictates of reason and in no way exclude reason. There is no need to follow Pascal's advice and "go stupid" by subjecting yourself to the discipline he recommends in order to be able to be honest, truthful, sincere and charitable. On the contrary, reason gives a more correct application of high moral qualities. Even if, following Pascal, we recognize the impotence of reason and consider our mental activity to be as automatic as the movement of wheels in Pascal's arithmetic machine, then this does not in the least prove the incompatibility of reason with the moral side of Christian teaching. As for the side that so attracted Pascal, especially since he believed in the miracle of the "holy thorns", it should be said about it that it is connected with questions of morality only in an accidental and external way: therefore, one can have very different opinions on this kind questions and hold exactly the same views about human morality.

The history of philosophy must, however, acknowledge the merit behind Pascal that he posed the questions more directly, sincerely and more talented than most who wrote in the same spirit; that his word did not differ from his deed and his whole life was the exact embodiment of his ideas. If he had weaknesses and delusions, then he atoned for them by years of severe moral and physical suffering. A merciless denouncer of Jesuit hypocrisy and hypocrisy, he alone earned a place in the history of human development, not to mention his brilliant scientific works.

Name: Blaise Pascal

Years of life: 06/19/1623 - 08/19/1662

State: France

Field of activity: Mathematics, philosophy, literature

Greatest achievement: Creation of the first calculating technique, writing of works on hydrostatics

France in the 17th century was distinguished by the presence of great minds who made a huge contribution to the development of sciences. Moreover, in a variety of areas - from technical to humanitarian. During this period, the state patronizes discoveries and their creators, thus contributing to world science. One of the most prominent representatives of that time is the outstanding mathematician, Blaise Pascal.

The life of Blaise Pascal

French scientist Blaise Pascal was born on June 19, 1623. The family was quite prosperous - his father, Etienne Pascal, was engaged in collecting taxes and debts. Mother, Antoinette, ran a household - she had a house and three children on her shoulders - Blaise himself and his 2 sisters - Jacqueline (younger) and Gilberte (older). When the baby was 3 years old, the mother died. And the father himself began to raise the children. But doing this in the town of Clermont-Ferrand, where the future mathematician was born, is unprofitable and inconvenient. The capital will give more opportunities for children, and in 1631 the entire Pascal family moved to Paris.

Etienne was engaged in the education of his son himself - he himself had, as they say, good brains and a craving for knowledge. Moreover, the child grew up smart and grasped everything the first time. The father adhered to the principle that every subject should be studied at a certain age, so that there are no gaps in education and there is no need to strain the child too much on a subject that is not old enough. For example, learning languages - from 12 years old, mathematics - from 15.

At the age of 11, Blaise surprised his parent with his knowledge of physics. And it happened like this. One day the family was having dinner at the table, and one of the children hit the earthenware dish with the device. Sounds and vibrations spread across the dining room table. And Blaise noticed that when you touch the dish, sound and vibration disappear. After this discovery, he wrote a small note about it and showed it to his father. Etienne, familiar with many scientists and mathematicians, takes his son to meet with them, and from the age of 14, Blaise will spend time every Thursday with the outstanding minds of France in a monastic cell, discussing the development of technical sciences.

In 1638, clouds thickened over the family - the father did not agree with the financial policy of the cardinal, for which he was removed from office and was forced to flee from Paris. The children had to be left to a neighbor. After some time, the cardinal changed his anger to mercy and returned Pascal the elder to work as a collector, not in Paris, but in Rouen. The family moved again.

Blaise Pascal's Adder

In 1640, Pascals arrived at their father's new place of work. It was during this period that Blaise's health began to deteriorate. He himself had never been in good health, and here in Rouen it got worse. But nevertheless, he did not quit his studies of science.

My father grew older and could no longer make calculations in his head so quickly. The son saw this torment and decided to help the parent. He wanted to make such an amazing device that would do all the computational work for them. In 1642, Blaise began developing the world's first calculating machine. It was quite easy to use - a medium-sized box with gears inside. With the help of revolutions, amounts were entered and added (or subtracted). Pascal calls the typewriter "Pascalina".

This machine became truly revolutionary in those days, but did not bring a lot of money to its creator, because it was quite expensive to use and too bulky. However, Blaise does not lose heart, and over the next nine years, mass-produced the machine, constantly improving it.

The genius of mathematics and physics

Despite his youth, Blaise also did not disregard mathematics. Pascal develops the theory of probability. This discovery was due to the fact that the card players could not solve the problem of early completion of the game and fair division of the winnings in half.

Blaise also challenged the mathematicians and physicists of antiquity, in particular, Aristotle. Once the great Greek claimed that everything is of a material nature. Pascal with the help of experiments proves that in any matter there is necessarily a vacuum. He carried out the main experiment using a Toricelli tube. An Italian scientist dipped a tube into mercury and saw that a void was formed inside the tube. Pascal proved that there are no substances on the surface of the tube. He published his observations in a book dedicated to this experience.

Blaise, in addition to technical sciences, towards the end of his life became interested in philosophy and religion. This was facilitated by the trauma of his father on the ice in 1646 and getting into the circle of Jansenists - followers of a religious doctrine that held on to the predestination of the human earthly path, from the very beginning of the spoiled nature of man as a result of original sin. Pascal himself became an ardent religious man after the death of Etienne Pascal in 1657 and the departure of his younger sister, Jacqueline, who had been his friend and support all his life. During this period, Blaise creates his scandalous work "Provincial Notes", where he criticizes the policy of the church and itself in particular. King Louis XIV and the Pope of Rome unanimously condemned Pascal for this work.

Since 1659, Pascal has been experiencing constant headaches (since childhood, he had problems with the nervous system). In 1647, he suffered a paralytic seizure, which further worsened his health. Jacqueline died in 1661, and this event was the final blow for Blaise. He took to his bed and did not get out of bed anymore; on August 19, 1662, he died. He was only 39 years old.

Quotes

Pascal was distinguished by both extraordinary attention and wit. His quotes are filled with vital deep meaning. Basically, he talked about human nature and love, for example, that silence in it is much more valuable than any words, that only a true lover of truth can find it in a huge stream of deception. Throughout his life, he adhered precisely to those statements that he himself created.

Blaise Pascal - a great mathematician and physicist, a wonderful philosopher, an interesting writer - all this was combined in himself by the famous French scientist, while remaining a completely secular person.

He was called a man of great mind and great heart.

short biography

Blaise Pascal was born on June 19, 1623 in the town of Clermont-Ferrand in the south of France. His parents, Etienne Pascal and Antoinette, née Begon, were hereditary nobles who received a good education.

Blaise showed outstanding abilities from early childhood, but his parents protected him from the tediousness of studying science due to poor health.

But finding his eight-year-old son in his own library to prove Euclid's theorems, his father decided not to interfere with his studies anymore. Moreover, he himself was no stranger to an interest in mathematics, like many of his friends. They even organized a kind of scientific circle and discussed new research in mathematical circles at meetings.

Subsequently, these friendly gatherings with disputes, discussions and readings of scientific reports became the beginnings of the Paris Academy.

Scientific activity

When Blaise turned 16, he became a full and active member of this circle. Extensive knowledge, multiplied by innate ability, allowed the young man to soon take a leading position among the adult members. And even write at such a young age his first scientific work about what figures a truncated cone forms when crossing a plane.

At the age of 18, he invents and assembles an arithmetic machine called "Pascaline", thereby bringing himself fame not only in France, but also abroad.The prototype of the modern calculator delighted the scientists of Pascal's contemporaries.

People of the counting professions reacted to this invention rather hostilely, considering the arithmetic machine a competitor for themselves. And for practical use, it was somewhat cumbersome. However, this does not detract from the genius of Blaise Pascal as a scientist.

Despite the fact that from the age of 18 he began to suffer from constant headaches, this did not turn the young man away from scientific research. He was very interested in the discovery of atmospheric pressure by young scientists from Italy Torricelli. Pascal's inquisitive mind suggested that the strength of atmospheric pressure depends on the height of the measuring device - the higher the device, the lower the pressure, and vice versa.

Pascal's arithmetic machine photo

Theoretical assumptions were not enough for Pascal and he took part in practical tests. Several ascents in 1647 to the Puy-de-Dôme mountain, together with the Torricelli tube and a barometer, practically confirmed Pascal's hypothesis that the weight of air affects atmospheric pressure. He rightly assumed that this hypothesis can be attributed to liquid and gaseous substances.

Pascal was unable to complete this work and come up with a final formula for his discovery. This was done later by other scientists, but the very unit of measurement of mechanical stress is named after Pascal. The inception of thorium unfortunately, at the age of 27, Pascal's not very good health seriously deteriorated - he was partially paralyzed.

Science had to be reduced to a minimum. But his not only active and energetic, but seething mind could not be limited. Starting to lead a scattered, social life, he began to visit, including gambling houses and made the discovery that it is possible to mathematically calculate the probability of winning with an amazingly high percentage of value.

He formulated his discovery as a theory of decision making. The ability to calculate it mathematically using statistical data makes it possible to successfully apply the discovery of the 17th century in economics, modern marketing, trading on the stock exchange, and so on.

The invention of roulette, which came to Pascal when he suffered from a toothache, can be considered a kind of joke of a genius. Wanting to distract himself, he began calculating the odds of winning the 36-card lotto. The result was one of the world's most gambling games. But the same discovery about the likelihood of calculating different outcomes of events radically changed the life of Pascal himself.

Materialist and Christian

The eternal dispute between a learned materialist and a Christian about the existence of God ended for him in favor of Christianity. Pascal stopped doing mathematical research and devoted the rest of his life to the introduction of the faith as many people as possible. This is the subject of his unfinished work “Thoughts.” Blaise Pascal died on August 19, 1662.

As a tribute to Pascal's genius, one can consider the fact that the programming language is named after the great French scientist.
"Pascal" - this is the international system name for the unit of measurement of mechanical stress.A decision about this was made by scientists in the middle of the 20th century.

Blaise Pascal is a physicist, a famous French scientist, considered one of the founders of mathematical analysis, projective geometry and the theory of probability. The hero of our article is the author of the basic law of hydrostatics, which Napoleon dreamed of making a senator if he were his contemporary. His achievements became fundamental for the future generation of researchers in the exact sciences. In fact, he stood at the origins of computer science, although he lived in the 17th century. The scientist invented the summing machine, which became the prototype of the modern calculator. In addition, he was a philosopher who left behind a huge number of wise quotes and aphorisms.

early years

Blaise Pascal was born in 1623 in the small town of Clermont-Ferrand, located in a commune in the south of France. The hero of our article grew up in a large family of officials who belonged to a half-family.

His father, Etienne, was in charge of the tax office, and the mother of the hero of our article, Antoinette Begon, was engaged in housekeeping, remaining a deeply religious woman. She was the daughter of the Seneschal, a representative of the highest court positions.

When the boy was only three years old, his mother died, so he was raised exclusively by his father. Etienne was well versed in mathematics and other exact sciences, so he gave his children an excellent home education. Blaise showed alertness and curiosity from an early age. For example, at the dinner table, he was constantly interested in the basics of subtraction and addition with his father, but he believed that it was too early for the child to study mathematics, otherwise it could negatively affect the study of Latin.

Education

Those around him noted that he grew up as a gifted child, read a lot, and science was given to him without much difficulty. It is interesting that the early years of the future physicist Pascal Blaise resemble the fate of another scientist - Gottfried Leibniz. He also studied the treatises of ancient historians and philosophers, but his father insisted that the learning process be appropriate for the child's age.

At the age of 12, Pascal studied ancient languages, and then took up the basics of mathematics. Once Blaise began to ask his father what geometry is. He explained to him that this is a way to draw the correct figures and establish the appropriate proportions between them. Pascal, impressed by the new knowledge, immediately drew a square, triangles and circles on the floor in charcoal, giving them their names.

Blaise sought to find a scientific explanation for everything that surrounded him, even the most ordinary processes. For example, when, during lunch, he heard the sound of a spoon touching earthenware, he touched the dish, after which the sound instantly disappeared. For a long time he tried to find out the nature of this previously unknown process, due to which the famous "Treatise on Sounds" appeared.

At the age of 14, the hero of our article begins to attend lectures by the music theorist and famous mathematician Maren Mersenne, although his father still believes that it is too early for him to study the exact sciences. It is known that Mersen was in correspondence with many prominent scientists of our time - Torricelli, Galileo, Gassendi, so Pascal learned a lot from him. He managed to direct the development of the young man in the right direction.

First discoveries

At one of the seminars, Pascal will meet the geometer Desargues and begin to study his works. They were written in extremely difficult language, so Blaise, drawing inspiration from his writings, constantly sought to simplify the mathematical formulas.

At the age of 17, he published his first work of his own. In 1640 his work was published under the title "Experience of the theory of conic sections". It became the main treatise for his further works and research in the field of geometry. The third lemma, contained in it, in the future turned into Pascal's theorem, with the help of which canonical sections are constructed along five points.

At the end of the same year, he moves to Rouen, the capital of Normandy. His father worked here at that time, whose activity consists in monotonous and tedious calculations, which are carried out in a column. It is at this moment that Pascal has the idea to help the parent by creating an adder machine. He began to develop the apparatus in 1642. The scientist gets an adding machine according to the principle of an ancient taximeter, which looks like a small box with a lot of gears. It allows you to make calculations with 6-digit numbers, the whole calculation is carried out in a semi-automatic mode.

It may seem surprising, but this invention of his did not bring him any fame. The fact is that at that time tax calculations in France were carried out simultaneously in livres, deniers and sous, so the appearance of the decimal machine only complicated the whole process. At the same time, Blaise did not give up hope, trying over the years to improve his creation.

Pascal's discovery played a big role in the future, when at the end of the 16th century France switched to the metric system, and in 1820 Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar's first mechanical calculator was patented. This discovery, which in some key principles repeated the early invention of Pascal, brought fame and honor to its creator.

Passion for physics

Physics captivated the hero of our article in 1646, when he learned about the tube invented by Torricelli. Pascal began to conduct experiments and experiments, seeking to prove in practice that Aristotle's hypothesis about the "fear of emptiness" is limited to certain limits.

At the same time, Torricelli became famous for his experiments with a tube that he filled with mercury. With the help of this device, the Italian physicist sought to prove the existence of atmospheric pressure. As a result, he came to the conclusion that a void is formed in the tube dipped in mercury.

Blaise modified and improved this experiment, coming to the conclusion that the top of the tube does not contain subtle matter, but vapors of a chemical or some other substance. He sought to conclude that a column of poisonous metal is held in the tube by air pressure. He described the results of his experiments in a treatise entitled "New Experiments Concerning Emptiness."

The law of hydrostatics

Another project of the physicist Pascal was the Treatise on the Equilibrium of Fluids, which he wrote in 1653. In it, he outlined the idea of a hydraulic press, establishing the basic law of hydrostatics. As a result, the French researcher managed to refute the hypotheses that were previously put forward by the ancient Greek scientist and philosopher.

In 1651, a tragedy occurs in the family of the hero of our article - his father dies. After that, Blaise's sister Jacqueline, with whom he was especially close and whom he considered his friend, decides to give up worldly life and goes to the monastery.

Pascal needs to be distracted from the difficulties that he regularly has to face, so he plunges into high life, regularly appears in society. In 1652, real fame and recognition came to him, when his summing machine was judged by the Swedish queen Christina.

The first significant success arouses in the physicist Pascal an additional interest in science, as well as fame and social life, in which he now knows a lot. Since then, Blaise has often gambled with close friends and acquaintances. It is during the dice game that he formulates the foundations of the theory of probability. The calculations compiled by him a few years later interested Huygens, who in 1657 wrote a treatise "On Calculations in Gambling".

Pascal's theorem

One of the key works in the biography of the physicist Pascal is the theorem that he formulated by generalizing the data from Papp's theorem.

It was taken by the scientist as a basis. The treatise itself on conical sections has not survived to this day, its content is known only thanks to the letters of Leibniz, who got acquainted with the original when he came to Paris.

The essence of this theorem is that for a hexagon inscribed in a circle, the intersection points of three pairs of opposite sides are located on one straight line. The same statement is valid for any other conic section, including a parabola, ellipse, hyperbola, and even a pair of straight lines.

Research in physics

Blaise Pascal achieved the greatest success in physics. Most of the modern hydraulic devices were developed thanks to this French scientist. The work of hydraulic presses, brake systems, and other similar devices is based on the definition in physics. The basic law of hydrostatics is based on it. This discovery of Blaise Pascal in physics is formulated as follows:

The pressure applied to a liquid or gas is transmitted to any point unchanged in all directions.

It should be noted that the physicist Pascal noted that in this case we are not talking about the pressure produced at different points. This law is also true for a liquid that is in a gravity field. This is what Pascal discovered in physics. This law is a logical consequence of the law of conservation of energy, remaining valid even for compressible liquids and gases.

How is pressure measured?

One of the units of measurement in physics is named after this famous French scientist. Pascal is a value in which pressure and mechanical stress are counted.

For the first time this name was introduced into the SI International System of Units in France in 1961. Now you know what is measured in Pascals in physics. How is it recorded? The Russian designation for Pascal in physics is Pa, the international one is Pa.

Philosophy

In 1654, a mysterious event happened to the scientist. He himself claimed that this was an insight that came to him before bedtime. Under the influence of an unconscious stream of thoughts, for some time he was unconscious, and when he regained consciousness, he wrote down all the ideas. This work was discovered only after his death.

The inspiration radically changed his fate, as Blaise decided to abandon social life. He left Paris to take up residence at the Port-Royal monastery. He began to lead a harsh lifestyle, constantly prayed, claimed that he felt an uplifting spirit.

During this period of his life he created "Letters to the Provincial", in which he condemns casuistry. The work was published under a pseudonym and caused a real scandal in society. The scientist even risked being arrested for some time, so he was hiding under a false name.

Scientific triumph

In the remaining years he was engaged in science without interest, although he made another significant discovery. He studied cycloid in order to forget about toothache. He came to a decision overnight, but fame at that time no longer interested him, so he did not tell anyone about this event.

The competition between European scientists was arranged by the Duke de Roanne, who called on thinkers to determine the area of bodies and the center of gravity of the cycloid. Pascal's work was recognized as the best by the jury.

Personal life

Biographers claim that science was Pascal's only passion and love. He was never married and had no children.

It is known that the scientist was in poor health. According to legend, at the age of 3 he was cursed by a woman who begged for alms. His father believed in witchcraft and magic. He found this woman, forced her to deliver her son from the curse. The spoilage was carried over to the black cat, but Blaise suffered health problems throughout his life.

The scientist had heart problems, which Pascal himself considered a consequence of the fact that he led an idle lifestyle for a long time. Biographers say that the hero of our article suffered from a whole bunch of diseases - from problems with the spine to brain cancer. Doctors advised him to fatigue less, but he devoted all his time to scientific research and writing. It is believed that he felt like he was going to die soon, so he tried to do as much as possible.

Death

The scientist's health deteriorated every year. He was diagnosed with intestinal tuberculosis.

As a result, he died in 1662 at the age of 39.

The greatness of a person lies in his ability to think.

Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal (June 19, 1623 - August 19, 1662) - French mathematician, mechanic, physicist, writer and philosopher. The classic of French literature, one of the founders of mathematical analysis, probability theory and projective geometry, the creator of the first samples of calculating technology, the author of the fundamental law of hydrostatics.

Pascal was born in the city of Clermont-Ferrand, French province of Auvergne, in the family of the chairman of the tax administration Etienne Pascal and Antoinette Begon, daughter of the Seneschal of Auvergne. The Pascals had three children - Blaise and his two sisters: the youngest - Jacqueline and the eldest - Gilberte. Mother died when Blaise was 3 years old. In 1631 the family moved to Paris.

Blaise grew up as a gifted child. His father, Etienne, educated the boy on his own; Etienne himself was well versed in mathematics - he was friends with Mersenin and Desargues, discovered and investigated a previously unknown algebraic curve, which has since been called "Pascal's snail", was a member of the commission for determining longitude, created by Richelieu.

Pascal the father adhered to the principle of matching the complexity of the subject to the mental abilities of the child. According to his plan, Blaise was supposed to study ancient languages from the age of 12, and mathematics from the age of 15-16. The teaching method consisted in the explanation of general concepts and rules and the subsequent transition to the study of individual issues. So, introducing an eight-year-old boy to the laws of grammar common to all languages, his father pursued the goal of teaching him to think rationally. There were constant conversations in the house about mathematics, and Blaise asked to be introduced to this subject. The father, fearing that mathematics would prevent his son from studying Latin and Greek, promised to introduce him to this subject in the future.

Once, to his son's next question about what geometry is, Etienne briefly replied that this is a way to draw correct figures and find proportions between them, but he forbade him any research in this area. However, Blaise, left alone, began to draw various figures on the floor with charcoal and study them. Not knowing the geometric terms, he called the line "stick" and the circle "ringlet". When Blaise's father accidentally caught one of these independent lessons, he was shocked: the boy, who did not even know the names of the figures, independently proved Euclid's theorem on the sum of the angles of a triangle. On the advice of his friend Le Payer, Etienne Pascal abandoned his original curriculum and allowed his son to read math books. Father gave Blaise the Euclidean Principles, allowing him to read them during his leisure hours. The boy read Euclidean Geometry himself, never asking for an explanation. Later, with the help of his father, he moved on to the works of Archimedes, Apollonius and Pappus, then - Desargues.

In 1634, Blaise was 11 years old when someone at the dinner table stabbed a faience dish with a knife. It sounded. The boy noticed that as soon as he touched the dish with his finger, the sound disappeared. To find an explanation for this, Pascal conducted a series of experiments, the results of which were later presented in the "Treatise on Sounds."

The meetings held at Father Pascal's and at some of his friends had the character of real scholarly meetings. Once a week, mathematicians who belonged to Etienne Pascal's circle gathered to read the works of the circle members, to offer various questions and problems. Sometimes the notes sent by foreign scholars were also read. The activity of this modest private society, or rather a circle of friends, was the beginning of the future glorious Paris Academy.

In 1640, Pascal's first printed work, "An Experiment on Conical Sections", was published. Pascal's relatives and friends argued that

no similar mental effort has been made in geometry since the days of Archimedes

The review is exaggerated, but caused by surprise at the extraordinary youth of the author. Pascal was 16 years old.

In this essay, the author included theorems (no proofs are given), three definitions, three lemmas, and indicated the chapters of the planned work devoted to conical sections. The third lemma from "Experience on conic sections" is Pascal's theorem:

if the vertices of the hexagon lie on some conical section (such are the circle, ellipse, parabola and hyperbola), then three intersection points of lines containing opposite sides lie on one straight line.

Pascal presented this result and 400 consequences from it in the "Complete work on conical sections", the completion of which Pascal announced fifteen years later and which would now be attributed to projective geometry. The "Complete Work on Conical Sections" was never published: in 1675 it was read in a manuscript by Leibniz, who recommended Pascal's nephew Etienne Perier to urgently print it. However, Perrier did not listen to Leibniz's opinion, and the manuscript was subsequently lost.

Government bonds, in which Etienne Pascal had invested his savings, suddenly depreciated, and the resulting financial losses forced the family to leave Paris.

In January 1640, the Pascal family moved to Rouen. During these years, Pascal's health, already unimportant, began to deteriorate. However, he continued to work.

At Rouen, where the family arrived, Etienne Pascal was appointed the royal commissioner in Upper Normandy for tax collections that required large arithmetic calculations. During this time, Blaise was preparing to write a summary of all areas of mathematics, but his father constantly demanded that his son help him in the summation of infinite columns of numbers. This created significant problems for the young man and at the same time led him to the concept of a mechanical calculator.

At the age of 19, having formulated his concept, Blaise Pascal began to develop various calculator models. And in 1645 he amazed all of Europe with his improved, working model of an automatic, mechanical calculator.

Pascal's car looked like a box filled with numerous gears connected to each other. The numbers to be added or subtracted were entered by the corresponding rotation of the wheels, the principle of operation was based on the counting of revolutions. Since the success in the implementation of the idea depended on how accurately the artisans reproduced the sizes and proportions of the machine parts, Pascal himself was present in the manufacture of its components.

In 1649, Pascal received the royal privilege of a calculating machine: both copying of Pascal's model and the creation of any other types of summing machines without his permission were prohibited; their sale by foreigners within France was prohibited. The amount of the fine for violating the ban was three thousand livres and had to be divided into three equal parts: for admission to the treasury, a Paris hospital and Pascal, or to the owner of his rights. The scientist spent a lot of money on the creation of the machine, but the complexity of its manufacture and the high price of steel on the way to the commercial implementation of the project.

Until 1652, under his supervision, about 50 variants of the "Pascaline" were created, this name was acquired by the invention. At least 10 of them are known to still exist. The principle of coupled wheels, invented by Pascal, became the basis for the creation of most adding machines for almost 300 years.

Pascal's invention surprised Europe and brought his creator great fame and little wealth, which he and his father aspired to.

And yet, the machine Pascal had invented was quite complex in design, and it took considerable skill to compute with it. This explains why it remained a mechanical curiosity that aroused the surprise of contemporaries, but did not enter into practical use.

Intense training undermined Pascal's already frail health. At the age of eighteen, he already constantly complained of a headache, which was not initially paid much attention to. But Pascal's health was finally upset during excessive work on a mechanical calculator.

In 1643, one of Galileo's most capable students, Torricelli, fulfilled the desire of his teacher and undertook experiments to lift various liquids in pipes and pumps. Torricelli deduced that the reason for the rise of both water and mercury is the weight of the column of air pressing against the open surface of the liquid. Thus, the barometer was invented, and there was clear evidence of the weight of air.

At the end of 1646, Pascal, having learned from a friend of his father about the Torricelli pipe, repeated the experience of the Italian scientist. Then he made a series of modified experiments, trying to prove that the space in the tube above the mercury is not filled with its vapors, or rarefied air, or some kind of "fine matter".

In 1647, already in Paris and despite the aggravated illness, Pascal published the results of his experiments in the treatise New Experiments Concerning Emptiness. In the final part of his work, Pascal argued that the space in the upper part of the tube "is not filled with any substances known in nature ... and this space can be considered really empty until the existence of any substance there is experimentally proven." This was preliminary evidence of the possibility of emptiness and that Aristotle's "fear of emptiness" hypothesis has limits.

Subsequently, Pascal focused on proving that a column of mercury in a glass tube is held back by air pressure. At Pascal's request, his son-in-law Florent Perrier conducted a series of experiments near the Puy-de-Dôme in Clermont and described the results (the difference in the height of the column of mercury at the top and at the foot of the mountain was 3 inches) in a letter to Blaise. In Paris, on the Saint-Jacques tower, Pascal himself repeats the experiments, fully confirming Perrier's data. In honor of these discoveries, a monument to the scientist was erected on the tower.

In 1648, in "The Story of the Great Experiment on the Equilibrium of Fluids," Pascal cited his correspondence with his son-in-law and the consequences arising from this experience: now it is possible to "find out if two places are on the same level, that is, are they equally remote from the center of the earth, or which of them is located higher, no matter how far they are from each other. "

Pascal also noted that all the phenomena previously attributed to "fear of emptiness" are in fact the consequences of air pressure. Summarizing the results obtained, Pascal concluded that air pressure is a special case of the equilibrium of liquids and the pressure inside them. Pascal confirmed Torricelli's hypothesis about the existence of atmospheric pressure.

Developing the results of Stevin and Galileo's research in the field of hydrostatics in his "Treatise on the Equilibrium of Liquids" (1653, published in 1663), Pascal approached the establishment of the law of pressure distribution in liquids. In the second chapter of the treatise, he forms the idea of a hydraulic press:

a vessel filled with water is a new principle of mechanics and a new machine for increasing forces to the desired degree, because with the help of this means a person will be able to lift any weight offered to him

and notes that the principle of its action is subject to the same law as the principle of action of a lever, block, endless screw. Pascal entered the history of science, starting with a simple repetition of Torricelli's experiment, he refuted one of the basic axioms of old physics and established the fundamental law of hydrostatics.

Based on the discoveries made by Pascal regarding the equilibrium of liquids and gases, one would expect one of the greatest experimenters of all time to emerge from him. But health ...

His son's health condition often inspired his father with serious concerns, and with the help of friends at home, he repeatedly persuaded young Pascal to have fun, to abandon exclusively scientific studies. The doctors, seeing him in such a state, forbade him to do all kinds of activities; but this lively and active mind could not remain idle. No longer occupied with either the sciences or the affairs of piety, Pascal began to seek pleasure and, finally, began to lead a secular life, to play and have fun. Initially, all this was in moderation, but gradually he got a taste and began to live like all secular people.

In 1651, his father, Etienne Pascal, died. The younger sister, Jacqueline, went to the Port-Royal monastery. Blaise, who had previously supported his sister in her pursuit of monastic life, fearing the loss of a friend and helper, asked Jacqueline not to leave him. However, she remained adamant.

After the death of his father, Pascal, having become the unlimited master of his fortune, continued to live a secular life for some time, although more and more often he experienced periods of repentance. There was, however, a time when Pascal became partial to female society: for example, he courted in the province of Poitou a very educated and charming girl who wrote poetry and received the nickname of the local Sappho. Pascal had even more serious feelings towards the sister of the provincial governor, the Duke of Roanes.

In all likelihood, Pascal either did not dare to tell his girlfriend about his feelings at all, or expressed them in such a hidden form that the girl Roanes, in turn, did not dare to give him the slightest hope, although if she did not love, then she highly respected Pascal ... The difference in social positions, secular prejudices and natural girlish modesty did not give her the opportunity to reassure Pascal, who gradually got used to the idea that this noble and rich beauty would never belong to him.

Being drawn into secular life, Pascal, however, never was and could not be a secular person. He was shy, even timid, and at the same time too naive, so that many of his sincere impulses seemed just philistine bad manners and tactlessness.

However, secular entertainment, paradoxically, contributed to one of Pascal's mathematical discoveries. A certain cavalier de Mere, a big fan of gambling, proposed to Pascal in 1654 to solve some problems that arise under certain gaming conditions.

De Mere's first problem - about the number of throws of two dice, after which the probability of winning exceeds the probability of losing - was solved by himself, Pascal, Fermat and Roberval. In the course of solving the second, much more complex problem, in the correspondence between Pascal and Fermat, the foundations of the theory of probability were laid.

Scientists, solving the problem of the distribution of bets between the players with an interrupted series of games, used each of their own analytical methods for calculating probabilities, and came to the same result.

Usually mathematicians are accustomed to dealing with questions that admit quite reliable, exact, or at least an approximate solution. Here the question had to be resolved, not knowing which of the players could win if the game continued? It is clear that this was a problem that had to be solved based on the degree of probability of winning or losing one or another player. But until then, no mathematician had ever thought to calculate only probable events. It seemed that the problem admits only a guessing solution, that is, that the bet must be divided completely at random, for example, by throwing a lot to determine who should have the final win.

It took the genius of Pascal and Fermat to understand that problems of this kind admit quite definite solutions and that "probability" is a measurable quantity.

The first task is relatively easy: it is necessary to determine how many different combinations of glasses there can be; only one of these combinations is favorable to the event, all the others are unfavorable, and the probability is calculated very simply. The second task is much more difficult. Both were solved simultaneously in Toulouse by the mathematician Fermat and in Paris by Pascal.

On this occasion, in 1654, a correspondence began between Pascal and Fermat, and, not knowing personally, they became best friends. Fermat solved both problems by means of the theory of combinations invented by him. Pascal's solution was much simpler: he proceeded from purely arithmetic considerations. Not in the least envious of Fermat, Pascal, on the contrary, rejoiced at the coincidence of the results and wrote:

From now on, I would like to open my soul to you, so I am glad that our thoughts met. I see that the truth is the same in Toulouse and in Paris.

Information about the investigations of Pascal and Fermat pushed Huygens to study the problems of probability, who formulated in his essay "On Calculations in Gambling" (1657) the definition of mathematical expectation.

Work on the theory of probability led Pascal to another remarkable mathematical discovery, he made the so-called arithmetic triangle.

In 1665, the "Treatise on the Arithmetic Triangle" was published, where he explores the properties of the "Pascal's triangle" and its application to the calculation of the number of combinations, without resorting to algebraic formulas. One of the applications to the treatise was the work "On the summation of numerical degrees", where Pascal proposes a method for calculating the degrees of numbers in a natural series.

On the night of November 23-24, 1654, “from ten and a half in the evening to half past midnight,” Pascal, according to him, experienced a mystical enlightenment from above. When he came to, he immediately copied the thoughts he had sketched on the draft onto a piece of parchment that he sewed into the lining of his clothes. With this relic, what his biographers will call "Memorial" or "Pascal's Amulet", he did not part until his death. The recording was found in the house of his older sister, when the belongings of the already deceased Pascal were being put in order.

This event radically changed his life. Pascal did not even tell his sister Jacqueline about what happened, breaks off secular ties and decides to leave Paris.

First, he lives in the castle of Vaumurier with the Duke de Luin, then, in search of solitude, he moves to the suburban monastery of Port-Royal. He completely stops doing science as sinful. Despite the harsh regime followed by the hermits of Port-Royal, Pascal feels a significant improvement in his health and is experiencing a spiritual upsurge.

From now on, he gives all his strength to literature, directing his pen to defend "eternal values". He makes a pilgrimage to Parisian churches. He went around them all.

Pascal is involved in religious polemics with the Jesuits and creates "Letters to the Provincial" - a brilliant example of French literature, containing fierce criticism of the order and the propaganda of moral values, set forth in the spirit of rationalism.

"Letters to the Provincial" contains the famous "Pascal's Wager" - a rational argument in favor of faith in God:

If God does not exist, a person will not lose anything by believing in Him, and if God exists, then a person will lose everything by not believing.

The Letters were published in 1656-1657 under a pseudonym and caused a considerable scandal. Pascal risked falling into the Bastille, he had to hide for some time, he often changed his place of residence and lived under a false name.

Having abandoned the systematic study of science, Pascal, nevertheless, occasionally discusses mathematical questions with friends, but is not going to engage in scientific work anymore. The only exception was the fundamental study of the cycloid.

One night, tormented by the most severe toothache, the scientist suddenly began to think about questions regarding the properties of the so-called cycloid - a curved line indicating the path traversed by a point rolling in a straight line of a circle, such as a wheel. One thought was followed by another, a whole chain of theorems was formed. The astonished scientist began to write with extraordinary speed. In one night, Pascal solves the Mersenne cycloid problem and makes a number of discoveries in its study. At first, Pascal was reluctant to make his findings public. But his friend the Duke de Roanne persuaded to arrange a competition for solving problems to determine the area and center of gravity of a segment and the volumes and centers of gravity of bodies of revolution of a cycloid among mathematicians of Europe. Many renowned scientists took part in the competition: Wallis, Huygens, Ren and others. Although not all participants solved the tasks, important discoveries were made in the process of working on them: Huygens invented the cycloidal pendulum, and Wren determined the length of the cycloid.

The jury recognized Pascal's solutions as the best, and his use of the method of infinitesimal in his works influenced later on the creation of differential and integral calculus. This was Pascal's last scientific work.

Pascal did not leave behind a single integral philosophical treatise, nevertheless, in the history of philosophy, he occupies a quite definite place. As a philosopher, Pascal represents an eminently peculiar combination of a skeptic and a pessimist with a sincerely believing mystic; echoes of his philosophy can be found even where you least expect them. Many of Pascal's brilliant thoughts are repeated in a slightly altered form not only by Leibniz, Rousseau, Schopenhauer, Leo Tolstoy, but even by such a thinker opposite to Pascal as Voltaire.

Around 1652, Pascal conceived of creating a fundamental work - "The Apology of the Christian Religion." One of the main goals of "Apology ..." was to be a criticism of atheism and the defense of faith. He constantly reflected on the problems of religion, his plan changed over time, but various circumstances prevented him from starting to work on the work, which he conceived as the main work of life.

Beginning in the middle of 1657, Pascal made fragmentary notes for "Apology ..." on separate sheets, classifying them according to themes. After Blaise's death, friends found whole bundles of such notes tied with twine. About a thousand excerpts have survived, differing in genre, volume and degree of completeness. They were deciphered and published in a book called "Thoughts on Religion and Other Subjects", then the book was simply called "Thoughts". They are mainly devoted to the relationship between God and man, as well as the apologetics of Christianity.

"Thoughts" entered the classics of French literature, and Pascal became the only great writer in modern history and a great mathematician at the same time.

Since 1658, Pascal's health has deteriorated rapidly. According to modern data, Pascal suffered from a whole range of diseases throughout his life. He is overcome by physical weakness, and terrible headaches appear. Huygens, who visited Pascal in 1660, found him a very old man, although Pascal was only 37 years old. When Huygens started a conversation with him about the power of steam and telescopes, Blaise was rather indifferent to the problems of concern to the Dutchman.

Pascal realizes that he will soon die, but does not feel fear of death, telling his sister Gilberte that death takes away from a person "the unfortunate ability to sin."

In the fall of 1661, Pascal shared with the Duke de Roanne the idea of creating a cheap and accessible way to travel in multi-seat carriages. The Duke created a joint-stock company to implement this project and on March 18, 1662, the first public transport route opened in Paris, multi-seat "carriages of five sous", later called omnibuses: from the Latin omnibus - for everyone. In October 1661, the scientist's sister Jacqueline dies. It was a hard blow for Pascal, who outlived his sister by only 10 months.

The last years of Pascal's life were a series of continuous physical and mental suffering. He endured them with amazing heroism. He led an ascetic lifestyle.

Having lost consciousness, after a day's agony, Blaise Pascal died on August 19, 1662 at the age of 39. His last words were: "May God never leave me!"

On August 21, a magnificent funeral took place, against the will of Pascal, who, before his death, asked his relatives to bury him quietly and unnoticed. The scientist's grave is located behind the Parisian parish church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont.

One of Pascal's contemporaries put it this way on the occasion of his death:

We can truly say that we have lost one of the greatest minds that ever existed. I do not see anyone with whom I could compare him ... The one for whom we grieve was the king in the kingdom of minds.

Pascal's name is steeped in legends. One of them says: in the year of the Great French Revolution, the Duke of Orleans ordered to dig the bones of Pascal from the grave and give them to the alchemist, who promised to extract the "philosopher's stone" from them. The glory of Pascal as a philosopher, which thundered in the 17th century, then began to decline in the Age of Enlightenment, then shot up again and staunchly "holds its zenith" right up to the present time. But the glory of Pascal as the national genius of France and one of the rarest scientific geniuses in the history of mankind has never known the blows of a capricious fate. It has become a tradition in the French Academy of Sciences to say the so-called "Praise to Pascal" from time to time. One of them says that

Pascal's genius is marked by the seal of popular power, before which human generations bow down ... and his glory makes a triumphal march through a number of centuries ...

Named after Pascal: