Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal, (1623-62). French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher. While only 17 he produced a highly successful mathematical treatise. He subsequently invented a mechanical adding machine to aid his father in his administrative work and from 1645 manufactured these to sell. During his studies of the application of pressure on contained fluids he in-vented the hydraulic press and syringe. He also formulated elementary laws of probability. Following a mystical experience in 1654, he retired to the Jansenist monastery at Port-Royal. There he wrote his celebrated Provincial Letters (1656-57), defending Jansenism, and his Pensees (1670), a series of profound aphorisms on human nature and religious belief.
