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Blaise Pascal: Gambling
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In December 1639 the Pascal family left Paris to live in Rouen where Etienne had been appointed as a tax collector for Upper Normandy. Shortly after settling in Rouen, Blaise had his first work, Essay on Conic Sections published in February 1640.
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One could question the validity of considering the value of finite beings from the naturalistic perspective of an infinite universe, or even the conceivability of a divine perspective that, according to Pascal, is naturally inaccessible to finite minds. Given his extremely poor health and the expressions of abandonment that emerge from his writings, one cannot avoid considering whether Pascal's choice of ‘wretchedness’ (la misère) as a sub-title for one group of ‘thoughts’ reflected his personal experiences. ‘The greatness of human beings consists in their ability to know their wretchedness’ (Fragment 105: II, 574). Pascal's rejection of any naturalistic explanation of the human mind or soul, his emphasis on dread of an unknown future (in his case, whether we are saved or damned), the apparent insignificance of human existence, and the experience of being dominated by political and natural forces that far exceed our limited powers, strike a chord of recognition with some of the existentialist writings that emerged in Europe following the Second World War. This was philosophy in a different register. Rather than speculate about abstract matters which were inaccessible to most of his contemporaries, Pascal invites his readers to recognize the description of his personal experiences as resonating with their own.
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In 1640, Pascal started developing a device to help his father add sums of money. The first operating model, the Arithmetic Machine, was introduced in 1642, and Pascal created fifty more devices over the next ten years. (In 1658, Pascal created a scandal when, under the pseudonym of Amos Dettonville, he challenged other mathematicians to a contest and then awarded the prize to himself!)
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Pascal remained conscious of the necessity—and difficulty—of interesting the libertin in these ideas. His famous pari, or wager, demonstrating that it is in our interest to bet on God's existence rather than against it, is usually seen not as a serious argument in itself but as an attempt to address the gambling libertin in language he will understand.
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In the year 1654 Pascal was involved in an accident at the Neuilly bridge where the horses plunged over the railing. Luckily, the carriage survived. Fifteen days later, Pascal while lying down had a religious vision and immediately recorded the intense experience.
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Pascal is not a traditional apologist, for he rejects the traditional arguments for God's existence. But, he is ... not a fideist or a presuppositionalist. For no fideist or true presuppositionalist would provide historical evidences for the Christian faith:
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