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Pascal, Blaise

Cultural  

  1. A seventeenth-century French mathematician, scientist, and religious thinker. Pascal came to believe that reason alone could not satisfy people's hopes and aspirations and that religious faith was therefore necessary. His religious thoughts are collected in Pensées (Thoughts).

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“Pascal's wager” refers to Pascal's idea that it is prudent to believe in God's existence, as little can be lost if there is no God, and eternal happiness can be gained if there is one.

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Pascal, Blaise, 150, 151, 160.

From Project Gutenberg

Pascal, Blaise, precocity of, 392.

From Project Gutenberg

Pascal, Blaise, influence on Gibbon, 119.

From Project Gutenberg

Pascal, Blaise, Pensées, 91, 91 n.,

From Project Gutenberg

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.