Blaise Pascal: the mathematician who wrote about the "thinking reed"

Blaise Pascal was born in 1623 in Clermont, France. His father taught him at home himself, and the boy showed an extraordinary talent for mathematics early on. At around 19 he built a mechanical calculating machine to help his father, who worked as a tax official. Today it is called the Pascaline.

The scientist

Pascal carried out experiments on air pressure and the vacuum, and the principle of pressure in fluids bears his name. In 1654, in correspondence with the mathematician Pierre de Fermat, he laid the foundations of probability theory, solving a problem about how the stakes of an interrupted game should be divided.

The night of fire

On the night of 23 November 1654, Pascal had a powerful religious experience. He wrote it down on a piece of paper that he sewed into the lining of his coat and carried with him until his death. This text is known as the "Memorial". After it he devoted himself more and more to religious and philosophical thought. He died in 1662, only 39. The notes he left for a book in defence of Christianity were published after his death, in 1670, under the title Pensées, "Thoughts".

Distraction

One of the best-known ideas of the Pensées is divertissement, distraction. Pascal observes that people constantly seek games, hunting, conversation and work, not because these make them happy, but because they help them not to think about their condition: about mortality, uncertainty and the great questions.

"I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men comes from one single thing: they do not know how to stay quietly in a room." (Pensées)

More than three centuries later, this remark seems written for the age of phones. Studies in modern psychology have shown that many people find it hard to stay alone with their thoughts even for a few minutes.

The thinking reed

Pascal did not see human beings only as weak. He wrote that man is only a reed, the frailest thing in nature, but a reed that thinks. The universe can crush him, but man knows that he dies, while the universe knows nothing. Our dignity lies in thought. Another of his sayings is just as famous: "The heart has its reasons which reason does not know."

Lessons for today

1. Notice when you distract yourself to escape a thought. Sometimes the phone is not rest but flight.
2. Try a few minutes of quiet without a screen every day, even if it feels hard at first.
3. Bring reason and feeling together. Pascal was a rigorous scientist, but he accepted that not everything important is measured by calculation.