You should
read Pensées by Blaise Pascal.
Yes, I am
recommending a book written in the 1600s.
A book that isn’t even finished and wasn’t even completely assembled by
its author. A book that has never been
on a bestseller list anywhere. But if
you have any interest in the discussion of science and belief, you should read
this book.
If you were
like me, you might probably say that the name Pascal sounds vaguely familiar,
but that is about all you could say about him.
Actually, for me, the name Pascal only meant one thing: the Pascal programming language. I spent a couple of years working primarily
as a programmer during my PhD studies, and I programmed entirely in Pascal
during that time. It is still my
favorite language by far – certainly better than BASIC or FORTRAN and, in my
opinion, easier than C. But my
programming days are distant in my past and the only thing I remember from them
is the name: Pascal.
Some would
have heard of “Pascal’s Wager.” The line
of thinking described as Pascal’s Wager has to do with the probability
trade-offs regarding belief and unbelief.
I won’t describe it here – it comes from Pensées – so if you read the
book, you’ll read the passage about the wager in context, which makes much more
sense. Pascal’s Wager has made it into
many popular works even today, but taken out of context it is easy to argue
against. When you read it in context,
you find that Pascal already dealt with all the arguments that have been lifted
against it. You’ll also find that it is
not the culmination of his thinking nor his most important contribution to the
discussion of belief. He has much more
to offer.
Pascal lived
in the mid-1600s and died at the age of 39.
He was a French mathematician and philosopher. Pascal might be more famous than Descartes,
in my opinion, if only Pascal had lived longer (and if he would have been able
to come up with some easily memorable phrase!).
Also, Pascal as a person and as a thinker can’t quite be categorized
into a neat compartment. Therefore, at
some point in the book, just about everyone will come across something that
they don’t agree with. The scientists
will say he is too religious. The
philosophers will say he is too much of a scientist and too practical. The Catholics will say he is too Protestant. The Protestants will say he is too Catholic. Don’t get hung up on those things – just read
it for its overall impact.
Pascal was
intending to write a book and had collected notes and ideas, but he had poor
health and died before he could finish it.
No one really knows exactly how he intended to have it organized, and
some of the sections are just bits of statements and unfinished thoughts. But as such, it makes it kind of like a
treasure hunt. But you never have to
read very far before you find another gem.
One of the
things you’ll find as you read this book is that “there is nothing new under
the sun.” The first time I read Pensées,
I was amazed at how many contemporary topics were discussed by Pascal, writing almost
400 years ago. Some of the sections of
the book are so relevant that they could have been written yesterday, and, in
my opinion, provide more insight on some topics than anything that is being
written now!
At the very
least, reading Pensées should cure you of your “chronological snobbery.” If you don’t know what that is, you’ll have
to wait until you read one of my other upcoming book recommendations (hint: from CS Lewis).
Finally, Pensées is a book that is freely
available – you can get it here:
or here:
or you can even get an audio
version and listen to it in your car:
So you have no excuse not to read
it!
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