Works by Blaise Pascal

501 Pages·1952·69.859 MB·English

by  Blaise Pascal

.'-'!. .':,
GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD
SSgj
5^5£-?^7^7^7^7^^^^^^^^^^^^^^P^^^^^r^^77^^r^SPr^^r^SPr^SP^^r7^7^^^^
^^^^
^r^F-
£pv^ v^v^?^
^7^ ~^^ry^
*2p#^Sm>, 12. LUCRETIUS 'y^SPV^Sp--y^S
5£^r EPICTETUS v^v^y^
^P^r Introductory Volumes: .^iw^VSd
MARCUS AURELIUS
5p-«^ 1. The Great Conversation VIRGIL v^v^v^
5i^^ 13. -«£^^8
5^^^7P^- 2.The Great Ideas I 14. PLUTARCH vr^^yr^^?r^^
^^«F^- 3. The Great Ideas II 15. TACITUS ^-7N^^?^^S^
^^y^- -S^T^y^
PTOLEMY -^^^5
^P^r 16.
5£^^ 4. HOMER COPERNICUS -?^?^^
£^^ V^T^?^
KEPLER
^«^
AESCHYLUS -y^p^^-y^
5.
»k«,-^-* -$&£&££
SOPHOCLES PLOTINUS
^—r^^- 17. V^T^V^
5^V5F- EURIPIDES -?^T^^
18. AUGUSTINE -?^^^«
ARISTOPHANES
SfvSp- V^?^7^
19. THOMAS AQUINAS I -?^v^y^
HERODOTUS
»-«,-^-«. 6. -y^v^y^
5^7^ THUCYDIDES THOMAS AQUINAS -y^v^y^
20. II
^r^p- -?^«f^
^-?^- PLATO DANTE -y^y^v^
7. 21.
^?z£- -y^v^£
^r^$- ARISTOTLE CHAUCER -y^y^y^
S^V^ 8. I 22. ^^^5^^
»-«,-^~*. -y^v^y^s
^^^ 9. ARISTOTLE II 23. MACHIAVELLI ^^^7^
HOBBES ^y£^
HIPPOCRATES
^2?-?^- 10.
^V^ GALEN RABELAIS V^?^7^
24.
mz.£K?--?«.^«>.- '-S•^.«^,i-^•0*«>,i^-•S*m«
2>Z& EUCLID MONTAIGNE VyVy?i
11. 25. ^^«^
*&£&
ARCHIMEDES
."•^"•^7^1
SHAKESPEARE
26. I
APOLLONIUS
=^V^ •y^y^V^
NICOMACHUS SHAKESPEARE
27. II v^v^y^
=sN^ V^V^?^
^V^
"y^*-1r^^r^f
^^^
rV^?"y^ry^
^y^p^y^v^y^p^^yv^^F^y^^y^'y^v^v^'v^-^^
§H GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD
|§|
GILBERT GIBBON
28. 41. II
GALILEO
KANT
HARVEY 42.
AMERICAN STATE
CERVANTES 43.
29.
PAPERS
30. FRANCIS BACON THE FEDERALIST
MILL
DESCARTES J. S.
31.
SPINOZA BOSWELL
44.
32. MILTON 45. LAVOISIER
FOURIER
PASCAL
33. FARADAY
NEWTON
34. HEGEL
46.
HUYGENS
GOETHE
41.
LOCKE
35.
BERKELEY MELVILLE
48.
HUME
DARWIN
49.
SWIFT
36.
MARX
STERNE 50.
ENGELS
FIELDING
37.
TOLSTOY
51.
MONTESQUIEU
38.
ROUSSEAU DOSTOEVSKY
52.
ADAM SMITH WILLIAM JAMES
39. 53.
GIBBON FREUD
40. I 54.
M M MMMMMM MM MMMMMM
»i »« » «» »
^^^^^5^^^^^?^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
GREAT BOOKS
OF THE WESTERN WORLD
ROBERT MAYNARD HUTCHINS, EDITOR IN CHIEF
m m m
IUMItlllttttt""'ft*ttt A «t »»»A »»»AAAA» AA»A««««..«.«..».»A»».»» A.A1....«.A*AA
33-
PASCAL
»
»«»« ^ >»
»
Mortimer Adler, Associate Editor
J.
MembersoftheAdvisoryBoard: StringfellowBarr, Scott Buchanan,John Erskine,
ClarenceH.Faust,AlexanderMeiklejohn,Joseph Schwab, Mark Van Doren.
J.
EditorialConsultants: A. F. B. Clark, F. L. Lucas, Walter Murdoch.
Wallace Brockway, Executive Editor
'I
» »>«»»»»'
«tlllHMIttlM»ttttllimtUUtl -*-»»-»«
THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS
PENSEES
SCIENTIFIC TREATISES
BY BLAISE PASCAL
ARCHB1SH1P MiTTY K&i HOOL
C
i T.
Library
5G00 Mitty Avenue
San Jose. CA 95129-1897
to
OID
O
William Benton, Publisher
'
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, INC.
CHICAGO LONDON TORONTO GENEVA SYDNEY TOKYO MANILA
>«>
^ ^ ^ M»»MMM
The text and annotations of Pensees, translated
by W. F. Trotter, in this edition are derived from the edition in
Everyman's Library by permission ofJ. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., London,
and E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., New York.
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
The Great Books
ispublished with the editorial advice of thefaculties
of The University of Chicago
No part ofthis work may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
means,electronicormechanical,includingphotocopying,recording,orbyany
informationstorageandretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthe
publisher.
©
1952
by Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
Twenty-seventh Printing, 1984
Copyright under International Copyright Union
All Rights Reserved under Pan American and Universal Copyright
Conventions by Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 55-10340
International Standard Book Number: 0-85229-163-9
£ ft I £
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Blaise Pascal, 1623-1662
PascalwasbornatClermontFerrand inAuvergne,June 19, 1623. His father, Etienne
Pascal, had been trained as a lawyer in Paris and held the post of President of the
Court ofAids at Clermont. His mother, the pious Antoinette Begon, died in 1626,
leaving her husband to care for Gilberte, Blaise, and the baby, Jacqueline.
In 1631 Etienne Pascal sold his post, moved to Paris, and set about the education
ofhis son. His method, according to Gilberte, "was to keep the child always in ad-
vanceofhis work." The boy was firstto learn to think for himself, stimulated by the
observations, questions, and conversation ofhis father. Later, after he had mastered
GreekandLatin, hewastobeallowedtostudygeometry. Butatthe age oftwelve the
boy began geometry by himself and is supposed to have achieved the equivalent
ofEuclid'sfirstthirty-twotheoremsbeforehis father noticed his precocity.
The elder Pascal always associated with men ofeminence in science and the arts,
and in his company theyoung Pascalwas introduced to FatherMersenne's circleand
became acquainted with Desargues, Fermat, and Roberval. Following a geometrical
method ofDesargues, Pascal completed before he was sixteen a work on conic sec-
tions that was widely circulated, though never published, which, according to his
own account, embraced the work of Apollonius. Though his health was seriously
affected by the intensity ofhis intellectual work, a few years later he achieved a still
greater reputation by his invention ofthe first calculating machine.
Although the Pascal family had been regular and respectful in their religious prac-
tice, religionwas not especially important in their lives until 1646 when they became
acquainted withJansenism. Pascal, then only twenty-three, had hisattention directed
to religious and theological questions, and he seems to have been influential in con-
verting his whole family to theJansenist version ofCatholicism. His sister,Jacque-
line, decidedtorenouncetheworld,andonthedeath ofher father in 165l sheentered
theJansenistconventofPortRoyal.
Pascal himselfcontinued his scientificand mathematicalresearches. The same year
that he began to think aboutJansenism he performed his variations on Torricelli's
experiment, which resulted in his NewExperiments concerningthe Vacuum (1647). This
inturnledtohisinvestigationoftheactionoffluidsunderpressureofairwhich estab-
lished his reputation as one of the founders of hydrodynamics. By 1651 he had
apparently completed most ofthe work for his GreatExperimentconcerning the Equili-
briumofFluids,althoughitwasnotpublisheduntil 1663. Uponthe death ofhis father,
he laid aside to some extent his scientific researches, frequented polite society with
his friends, theyoungDue deRoannezand theChevalier de Mere, shared their inter-
ests, and read Epictetus and Montaigne. Puzzling over a problem posedbyDe Mere
concerning the division of stakes in a game of chance, he began to investigate the
m
theory ofprobability. Hisresultsappearedin 1654 tnecorrespondence with Fermat
and in the Treatiseon theArithmeticalTriangle.
By 1654 Pascal felt "an extreme aversion for the beguilements ofthe world." The
contrastbetweenhislifeandthatofJacqueline, whomhevisited thesameyearat Port
Royal, intensified his dissatisfaction. His growing decision to retire from the world
was confirmed on November 23, 1654, when he experienced what is known as his
"second conversion." Thewrittenmemorial ofthat experience, which he wore there-
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
vi
afteras akind ofamulet, records that from ten-thirty untiltwelve-thirtythatnighthe
knew "the God ofAbraham, God ofIsaac, God ofJacob, not ofphilosophers and
scientists,"andthatheresolved "totalsubmissiontoJesusChristandtomydirector."
The followingJanuary he went on retreat at PortRoyal, and, although he did not
actually become one of its famous solitaries, he was henceforth identified with its
interests.
Pascal'stalentsweresoonemployedbytheJansenists. In 1655 AntoineArnauld,the
official theologian ofPort Royal, was condemned by the Sorbonne, and it was con-
sidered expedient to enlist public opinion for theJansenists against theirJesuit ad-
versaries. Perhaps at the suggestion ofArnauld himself, Pascal began his Provincial
Letters,which, fromJanuary, 1656toApril, 1657, captivatedParisbytheirstyleas well
astheirpolemic. Hewas alsoaskedtoworkuponamanualofgeometryforuseinthe
PortRoyal schools, and itis probably in connectionwiththis thathewrotehis essay
On GeometricalDemonstration.
Afflicted with ill-health since infancy, Pascal's suffering had become so acute in
1658thatany sustainedeffortbecameincreasinglydifficult. Inone attempt to distract
hismind from apersistenttoothache, heturned to theproblem of thecycloid, which
had occupied his friend, Roberval, aswellasmany othermathematicians ofthetime.
Before publishing his results, he proposed his theorems for public competition.
Wallis and Lalouere among others accepted the challenge, but only Pascal was able
to provide the complete solution.
Although he considered geometry the "highest exercise ofthemind," as hewrote
Fermat, "itis onlyatrade, . . . and I am steeped in studies so farfrom thatmentality,
thatscarcely do Irememberthatthereisany such." Afterthecureofhis niece atPort
Royal in 1656, which was known as the Miracle of the Holy Thorn, Pascal began
reading and collectingmaterial forwhathe planned to be an Apologyforthe Christian
Religion. Heput down his thoughts "upon the first scrap ofpaperthat came to hand
... afewwordsandveryoftenpartsofwordsonly." Thesefragments, foundafterhis
death, composewhathas cometo beknown as his Pensees, whichwerefirstedited by
theJansenists in 1670 and constantly re-edited thereafter.
Asdeathapproached, Pascal'slifebecamemoreaustere. Hegavehis possessionsto
thepoorand continually strovefor complete detachmentfrom thosehe loved. "It is
unjust that anyone should attach himselfto me ... for I am not an end and aim of
anyone,"hewroteonapaperhekeptalwaysabouthimtofixhisresolve.InJune, 1662,
he gave shelter to a poor family which developed small-pox. Ratherthan dispossess
them, he moved to the house ofGilberte, where he was seized with a violent illness
which lingered for two months. He diedAugust 19, at the age ofthirty-nine.
GENERAL CONTENTS
Biographical Note, Page v
THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS, Page
i
Translatedby Thomas M'Crie
PENSEES, Page 171
Translatedby W. F. Trotter
SCIENTIFIC TREATISES, Page
355
Translatedby Richard Scofield
»»»»»