Pascal, Blaise (1623-1662)

1. Entity type Person
2. Birth date 1623
3. Death date 1662
4. Gender Name Male
5. Biographical Data

   1. Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Christian philosopher. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalising the work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote in defence of the scientific method.

      Pascal was an important mathematician, helping create two major new areas of research: he wrote a significant treatise on the subject of projective geometry, and later corresponded with Pierre de Fermat on the probability theory, strongly influencing the development of modern economics and social science. Following Galileo Galilei and Torricelli, in 1646, he rebutted Aristotle's followers who insisted that nature abhors a vacuum. Pascal's results caused many disputes before being accepted.

      In 1646, he and his sister Jacqueline identified with the religious movement within Catholicism known by its detractors as Jansenism.

      Following a religious experience in late 1654, he began writing influential works on philosophy and theology. Pascal had poor health, especially after the age of 18, and he died just two months after his 39th birthday.