Blaise Pascal

French mathematician, physicist and religious writer. He did foundational work on probability with Fermat, built one of the first mechanical calculators, and ran the experiments on atmospheric pressure that carry his name; after a religious experience in 1654 he turned to the defence of Christianity, leaving at his death the fragments published as Pensées. The gambling argument for belief in Pascal’s Wager is his.

Lived: 1623–1662.

Connections

• A Library to Build Great Americans — where this author enters the corpus; a 468-title curriculum published in December 2025 by the Substack writer Dissident Teacher.