Born in Clermont-Ferrand on June 19, 1623, Blaise Pascal was educated by his father after his mother died when he was only three years old. A precocious child, at the age of 16 he wrote an Essai sur les coniques and completed his pascaline in 1645. In mathematics, his probability theory and his "Treatise on the arithmetic triangle" became famous. His work will be of great value for the future of statistics. In physics, Pascal wrote a treatise on vacuum, invented the hydraulic press, and perfected Torricelli's barometer. In 1654, after having been close to death in a car accident and having had a mystical experience, Pascal decided to devote himself to God and religion.
He elaborates the principles of his philosophical doctrine centered on the opposition of the two fundamental elements of knowledge: on the one hand, reason with its mediations which tend towards exactitude and logic, and, on the other hand, the heart, intuitive, able to learn the ineffable, the religious and the moral. Pascal's conceptions are collected in the works Les Provinciales (1656-1657), a set of 18 letters written to defend the Jansenist Antoine Arnauld against the Jesuits, and Pensées (1670), a treatise on spirituality published after his death.
