Blaise Pascal

Pascal is known for creating the foundation for today’s probability theory. He found out that there is a fixed likelihood of rolling a particular number when rolling the dice. Another thing Pascal invented that contributed to mathematics was Pascal’s triangle. Pascal’s triangle is a triangle with ones at the ends and the other numbers are the sum…

mathematical community was baffled by John Napier’s “invention” of logarithmic functions. It was later discovered that Jobst Bürgi had developed logarithms first however, he failed to publish his work first. Blaise Pascal, born in 1623 to Antoinette and Etienne Pascal. From a very early age Pascal showed an interest in math just like his skilled father. Due to Etienne Pascal’s unconventional…

considered necessary because many people believed Aristotle’s ideas were sound in logic and need not be proven any other way. However, beginning in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, experimentation became more important to philosophers such as Blaise Pascal, William Harvey, and Robert Hooke. These men had opinions of their own and new ideas of how natural philosophy work should be done. Experiments provided them with a way to prove to other scholars and to the general public that their…

In this essay I will be analyzing Blaise Pascal’s argument that one should bring themselves to believe in God because it is logical to wager or bet “that God is”. I will first outline his three premises of the wager and then I will have a criticism that is held against him. Specifically, the criticism is towards his second premise which states, “you must wager. It is not optional”. Lastly, I will be responding to that criticism, since I am agreeing with Pascal’s premise. Pascal’s wager consists…

Pascal explains throughout this section of his text, Classics of Western Thought: The Modern World, how humans need to work to find God in their lives to obtain their true selves. Pascal says “We naturally believe ourselves far more capable of reaching the centre of things than of embracing their circumference” (46). Through this, Pascal is stating his belief that Humans believe themselves to be “capable” of reaching…

Explain how any of us become “self-programmed” to condense or compress the steps of the decision-making process for decisions made regularly. 1.Individuals can become self-programmed to make decisions because of the constant decision making throughout their day or career. “The more often we make certain kinds of decisions, the better we get at it.” (McConnell, 2015). For instance, as kids, individuals do not naturally wake up and brush their teeth, they are steered in that direction. However,…

In this essay, I will argue that Blaise Pascal’s argument for the wager can be falsified. He says that “one ought to bring oneself to believe in God because it is rational to wager or bet ‘that God is’”. The wager Pascal discusses encompasses the idea of finite and infinite gains and losses. According to Pascal, if you gain, you gain all and if you lose, you lose nothing. This concluding that one must wager to believe or not. I will offer an explanation of why he believes it is rational to wager…

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), a Fideist and a seventeenth-century French philosopher, states through his Wager that if we are unsure of God’s existence, then we should believe in Him rather than risk not believing in Him resulting in harsh consequences. David Hume (1711-1776), an Evidentialist and a Scottish Philosopher, states his skepticism of miracles through his beliefs. While Pascal states to believe in God through his Wager and Hume discusses his disbelief in miracles, both are sufficient and…

that was erased during the 17th century. This is because this era was filled of many different philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, and inventors where they all made discoveries that helped shape our minds and life today. Rene Descartes, Blaise Pascal, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and many others are considered one of the most famous figures in the 17th century due to their impact on our lives in several different branches of science, their modern inventions, and visionaries. One of the…

Aquinas, Blaise Pascal and Robert Adams respectively. I attempt to discover what these arguments were aiming to show, who they were directed towards, as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Thomas Aquinas (Introduce) The first cause argument, also known as the cosmological argument, takes the existence of the universe to infer a being who created it. This…