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1653 In Science

1653 in science

The year 1653 in science and technology consisted of many events, some of which are listed below. See also: 1652 in science, other events of 1653, 1654 in science, and the list of years in science.

Physics

- Blaise Pascal publishes his Treatise on the Equilibrium of Liquids in which he explains Pascal's law of pressure

Births

Deaths

- Category:1653 Category:1650s in science

1653

Events

- February 2 - New Amsterdam (later renamed New York City) is incorporated.
- April 20 – Oliver Cromwell expels the Long Parliament
- May 24 – Ferdinand IV is elected King of the Romans
- June 12 - First Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of the Gabbard - lasted until June 13.
- July 4 - The Barebones Parliament meets in London till December 12
- August 9 - English naval victory over Dutch fleet off the Texel
- December 16 - Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.
- End of the first period of republican government called the Commonwealth of England. The Rump Parliament was disbanded by Oliver Cromwell. See also the Long Parliament and Southamptonshire.
- Marcello Malpighi becomes a doctor of medicine.
- Stephen Bachiler returns to England.
- John Thurloe becomes the head of intelligence for Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate
- Taj Mahal finished

Births

- January 13 - Philipp Jakob Spener, German theologian (d. 1705)
- February 17 - Arcangelo Corelli, Italian composer (d. 1713)
- April 2 - Prince George of Denmark, consort of Queen Anne of Great Britain (d. 1708)
- May 8 - Claude-Louis-Hector de Villars, Marshall of France (d. 1734)
- June 1 - Georg Muffat, French composer (d. 1704)
- June 26 - Cardinal André-Hercule de Fleury, Bishop of Fréjus, chief minister of France under Louis XV of France (d. 1743)
- July 5 - Thomas Pitt, British Governor of Madras (d. 1726)
- July 25 - Agostino Steffani, Italian diplomat and composer (d. 1728)
- August 9 - John Oldham, English poet (d. 1683)
- August 14 - Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle, English statesman (d. 1688)
- October 18 - Abraham van Riebeeck, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1713)
- Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Japanese playwright (d. 1724)
- Roger North, English lawyer and biographer (d. 1734) See also :Category:1653 births.

Deaths

- March 23 - Johan van Galen, Dutch naval officer (b. 1604)
- March 24 - Samuel Scheidt, German composer (b. 1587)
- May 26 - Robert Filmer, English writer (b. 1588)
- July 10 - Gabriel Naudé, French librarian and scholar (b. 1600)
- July 31 - Thomas Dudley, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1576)
- August 10 - Maarten Tromp, Dutch admiral (b. 1598)
- October 3 - Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn, Dutch scholar (b. 1612) See also :Category:1653 deaths. Category:1653 ko:1653년

Technology

:See also: Innovation Innovation.]] Technology is a word with origins in the Greek word technologia (τεχνολογια), techne (τεχνη) "craft" + logia (λογια) "saying". It is an encompassing term dealing with the use and knowledge of humanity's tools and crafts.
Disambiguation of technology
Depending on context, the word technology has the following definitions and uses:
- Technology as tool-In its most common usage, technology is the tools and machines that help to solve problems. In this usage, technology is a far-reaching term that can include both simple tools, such as a wooden spoon, and complex tools, such as the space station.
- Technology as technique-In this usage, technology is the current state of our knowledge of how to combine resources to produce a desired products, to solve a problem, to fulfill a need, or to satisfy a want. Technology in this sense includes technical methods, skills, processes, techniques, tools and raw materials. (such as artificial intelligence, building technology, or medical technology).
- Technology as culture former-a culture-forming (or destroying) activity (such as manufacturing technology, infrastructure technology, or space-travel technology). (McGinn). As a cultural activity, technology predates both science and engineering. This is not to imply that technology is the only culture forming activity, nor that it is the primary culture-forming activity. Often, it is dominant in cultural formation; often, it is not. In addition, culture may act to form technology. Due to widespread, and sometime careless, use of technology, several other topics arise in the study of technology, including technological ethics, environmental impacts, technological by-products, and technological risk, among many other philosophical and sociological topics.

Science and technology

The lines between science and technology are not always clear. Generally, science is the reasoned investigation or study of nature, aimed at finding out the truth, generally according to the scientific method. Technology is the application of knowledge (scientific, engineering, and/or otherwise) to achieve a practical result (Roussel, et.al.). For example, science might study the flow of electrons in an electric current. This knowledge may be used to create artifacts, such as semiconductors, computers, and other forms of technology.

History of technology

The history of technology is as old as the history of humanity because history proper refers to what could be recorded by technological means. Mind you that other animals currently use tools and animals prior to human existence may have as well. The history of technology follows a progression from simple (low-tech) tools and simple energy sources to complex ("hi-tech") tools. The earliest technologies converted natural resources into simple tools. Processes such as carving, chipping, scraping, rolling (the wheel), and sun-baking are simple means for the conversion of raw materials into usable products. Anthropologists have uncovered many early human houses and tools made from natural resources (although birds also build nests out of dried materials and we don't consider them to have a technological society). The use, and then mastery, of fire was a key turning point in man's technological evolution providing him with simple energy. The use of fire extended the capability for the treatment of natural resources and allowed the use of natural resources that require heat to be useful. Wood and charcoal were among the first materials used as a fuel. Wood, clay, and rock (such as limestone), would be among the earliest materials shaped or treated by fire, for making weapons, pottery, bricks, and cement, among others. Continuing improvements such as the furnace enabled the ability to smelt and forge metal (such as copper, ca. 8000 BC), and eventually to the discovery of alloys, such as brass and bronze (ca. 4000 BC). The first uses of iron alloys, steel, dates to around 1400 BC. Complex tools include both simple machines (such as the lever (ca. 300 BC), the screw (ca. 400 BC), and the pulley) and complex machines (such as the ocean liner, the engine, the computer, modern communications devices, the electric motor, the jet engine, among many others). Again we are confronted with an impractical vagueness as we categorise the lever with the jet engine. As tools increase in complexity, so does the type of knowledge needed to support them. Modern complex machines require written technical manuals of collected information that his been countinually added to and improved upon and are so complex, that entire technical knowledge-based processes and practices (also complex tools themselves) exist to support them, including engineering, medicine, computer science, etc. Further, complex machinies require complex manufacturing and construction techniques and organizations. Entire industries have arisen to support and develop complex tools.

The nature of technology

General characteristics

With all of the technology in use in modern society, it may seem futile to attempt a generalized list of common characteristics. Many authors, such as McGinn (1991) and Winston (2003), list the following: Complexity refers to the characteristic that most modern tools are difficult to understand. Some are easy to use, but difficult to comprehend source and means of make, such as a kitchen knife, or a baseball. Others are both difficult to use and difficult to comprehend, such as a tractor, gasoline, a television, or a computer. Dependency refers to the fact that modern tools depend on other modern tools, which depend on other modern tools, for their make and their use. Cars, as an example, have a huge complex of industry of means and methods. And to use them requires a complex of road, streets, highways, and gasoline stations, waste collection, etc., beyond our comprehension. Valence refers to the many, many different types of the same tool. Imagine the many different types of spoons available today, or scissors, and even complex tools come in many shape as well, like the construction crane, or the automobile. Scale refers to the sheer magnitude, size, and pervasiveness of modern technology. Simply put, technology seems to be everywhere. It dominates modern life. Scale refers also to the magnitude of some modern technological projects, like the cellular telephone network, the Internet, air travel, satellites, etc.

Types of Technology

One possible classification of technology uses the fields of technological studies, commonly found in academic institutions of higher learning:
- Applied Science;
- Athletics and recreation;
- The Arts and language;
- Business/information;
- Defense;
- Domestic/residential;
- Engineering;
- Health;
- Cognitive;
- Travel and trade .

Relationship with society

The relationship between society and technology is quite complex, creating what many characterize as a co-dependence upon the other; society creates and depends upon technology to meet its needs and desires, and technology's very existence arises due to society's needs and desires. However, this "symbiosis" goes further than that: Every advancement in technology influences and eventually changes society. So the needs of society change, creating more needs, and, eventually, creating more technology. (McGinn 1991) Consider the telephone, and its latest sibling the mobile phone. With the invention of the telephone, society began to depend on quicker ways of communication with others. Higher expectations for quicker communications were initially met using short-range radio systems for use in emergency vehicles. However, even higher portability was realized with miniaturization of components. This demand for a new product led to the invention of the mobile phone. The influence of portability is so pervasive now anyone can be accessible to talk in most urban places in the developed world Many technologies allow one society to have a military advantage over another society. This can be indirectly as something that creates population growth, for example, or this can be direct technology put into use like the gun or the atom bomb. The effects these technologies have on human society are complex and could result in slavery, assimilation, or genocide. Some technologies, like the video camera, start without militaristic use but eventually find themselves employed for those purposes. The car is another example of this... it is created and marketed with the promise of freedom (initially for the wealthy and without regard to the factory hands) but then it impedes upon other forms of transportation (like the free movement of the pedestrian), requires extensive paving for its full accommodation, and then it is employed militaristically. Its consumption of fuel eventually even becomes the potential basis for a resource war. The use of advanced mass media techniques, such as television programming, allows some members of society to have larger sway over the attititudes and opinions of others. Mass media often shapes mass opinion -- for better or, at least as often, worse. The effects that various forms of technology have upon the environment also sways public opinion. The Chernobyl effect (caused by a massive nuclear meltdown) is thought to have played a part in undermining the confidence that citizens of the Soviet Union had in their government. The exact causes for the collapse of that government are debatable but the new leader in Russia had a reputation as being a strong environmentalist.

Funding for technological development

Government

The government is a major contributor to the development of technology. In the United States, many agencies invest millions of dollars in new technology. In 1980, the UK government invested just over 6 million pounds in a 4 year Programme, later extended to 6 years, called the Microlectronics Education Programme (MEP) which aimed to provide every school in Britain with at least one computer, microprocessor training materials and software, plus extensive teacher training.

Military technology

Technology has frequently been driven by the military, with most modern applications being developed for the military before being taken up for civilian use. However, this trend has recently seen a reversal, with the industry often taking the lead in developing technology which is then adopted by the military.

Other

Some government agencies are dedicated specifically to research, such as the American's National Science Foundation, the United Kingdom scientific research institutes, the American's Small Business Innovative Research effort. And many government agencies dedicate a major portion of their budget to research and development.

Private source

For profit

Research and development is one of the biggest investments made by corporations toward new and innovative technology.

Non-profit

Many foundations and non-profit organizations contribute to the development of technology.

Side effects

There are two types of effects from the use of technology, main effects and side effects. Main effects are those intended by the technology, usually to fulfill some desire or need. Side effects are (usually) unintended, and often unknown prior to technology's implementation. This portion of the article deals with those side effects.

Sociological

The most subtle side effects from technological uses are sociological in nature. Subtle because those side effects can go unnoticed without careful observation and contemplation of individual, institutional, and group behaviors.

Values

The implementation of technology influence the values (beliefs, ideas, opinions) of society by changing expectations and realities. There are (at least) three major, interrelated, values that are the result of technological innovations:
- Mechanistic World View. A set of beliefs that views the universe as a collection of parts, like a machine, that can be individually analyzed and understood. (McGinn)
- Efficiency. A value, originally applied only to machines, but now placed upon all aspects of society, whereby each element (organizational structures and human beings) is expected to attain higher and higher performance, output, ability, etc. (McGinn)
- Progressivism. The belief that societal progress is good.

Ethics

Winston provides an excellent summary of the ethical implications of technological development and deployment. He states there are four major ethical implications:
- Challenges traditional ethical norms.
- Creates an aggregation of effects.
- Changes the distribution of justice.
- Provides great power.

Lifestyle

In many ways, technology simplifies life.
- The rise of a leisure class
- More informed
- Sets the stage for more complex learning tasks
- Increases multi-tasking
- Global Networking
- Creates denser social circles
- others In other ways, technology complicates life.
- Sweatshops and harsher forms of slavery are more likely to be found in technologically advanced societies (relative to primitive societies).
- More people are currently starving now that at any point in history or pre-history
- Work to drive to drive to work to work to drive -- consequently dealing with the traffic jams.
- the prison population grows with advancements in jailing techniques and tools.
- Too much information
- Consumerism
- Pace
- Technicism
- New forms of danger
- Can cause obesity and laziness
- Distraction among students-internet, gaming, etc. can take away from academic performance

Institutions and groups

Technology influences, often enables, organizational and bureaucratic group structures and influence. Example of this include:
- The rise of organizations: e.g., health institutions.
- The commericalization of leisure: sports events, products, etc. (McGinn)
- The advent of large organizational structures.
- Others

International

Technology provides a heightened awareness of international issues, values, and cultures. Due mostly to mass transportation and mass media, the world seems to be a much smaller place due to the following, among others:
- Globalization of ideas
- Embeddedness of values
- Population growth and control
- Others

Environmental

The effects of technology on the environment is both obvious and subtle. The more obvious effects include the depletion of nonrenewable natural resources (such as petroleum, coal, ores), and the added pollution of air, water, and land. The more subtle effects include debates over long-term impacts (e.g., global warming, deforestation, natural habitat destruction, costal wetland loss) Others

Control

Autonomous technology

In one line of thought, technology develops autonomously, in other words technology seems to feed on itself, moving forward with a force irresistible by humans. To these individuals, technology is "inherently dynamic and self-augmenting." (McGinn, p. 73) Jacques Ellul is one proponent of the irresistibleness of technology to humans. He espouses the idea that humanity cannot resist the temptation of expanding our knowledge and our technological abilities. He, however, does not believe that these seeming autonomy of technology is inherent. But the perceived autonomy is due to the fact that humans do not adequately consider the responsibility that are inherent to technological processes. Another proponent of these ideas is Langdon Winner who believes that technological evolution is essentially beyond the control of individuals or society.

Government

Individuals rely on governmental assistance to control the side effects and negative consequences of technology. Government intervenes many through laws.
- Supposed independence of government. An assumption commonly made about the government is that their governance role is neutral or independent. Often, if not usually, that assumption is misplaced. Governing is a political process, more so in some countries than in others, therefore government will be influenced by political winds of influence. In addition, government provides much of the funding for technological research and development. Therefore, even government has a vested interest in certain outcomes.
- Liability. One means for controlling technology is to place responsibility for the harm with the agent causing the harm. Government can allow more or less legal liability to fall to the organization(s) or individual(s) responsibile for damages.
- Legislation.
- Others

Choice

Society also controls technology through the choices that it makes. These choices not only include consumer demands; it includes
- the channels of distribution, how do products go from raw materials to consumption to disposal;
- the cultural beliefs regarding style, freedom of choice, consumerism, materialism, etc.;
- the economic values we place on the environment, individual wealth, government control, capitalism, etc.
- Others

Technology and philosophy

Technicism

Generally, Technicism is an overreliance or overconfidence in technology as a benefactor of society. Taken to extreme, some argue that technicism is the belief that humanity will ultimately be able to control the entirety of existence using technology. In other words, human beings will eventually be able to master all problems, supply all wants and needs, possibly even control the future. (For a more complete treatment of the topic see the work of Egbert Schuurman, for example at [http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/SPT/v3n1/schuurman.html].) Some, such as Monsma, et al., connect these ideas to the abdication of God as a higher moral authority. More commonly, technicism is a criticism of the commonly held belief that newer, more recently-developed technology is "better." For example, more recently-developed computers are faster than older computers, and more recently-developed cars have greater gas efficiency and more features than older cars. Since current technologies are generally accepted as good, future technological developments are not considered circumspectly, resulting in what seems to be a blind acceptance of technological developments.

Optimism, pessimism and appropriate technology

Pessimism

On the somewhat pessimistic side, are certain philosophers like Herbert Marcuse, Jacques Ellul, and John Zerzan, who believe that technological societies are inherently flawed a priori. They suggest that the result of such a society is to become evermore technological at the cost of freedom and psychological health (and probably physical health in general as pollution from technological products is dispersed). Perhaps the most poignant criticisms of technology are found in what are now considered to be literary classics, for example Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Optimism

On the other hand, the optimistic assumptions are made by proponents of technoprogressivist views or ideologies such as transhumanism and singularitarianism, that view technological development as generally having beneficial effects for the society and the human condition. In these ideologies, technological development is morally good. Some critics see these ideologies as examples of scientism, mathematical fetishism, or techno-utopianism and fear the idea of technological singularity which they support.

Appropriate technology

The notion of appropriate technology, however, was developed in the twentieth century to describe situations where it was not desirable to use very new technologies or those that required access to some centralized infrastructure or parts or skills imported from elsewhere. The eco-village movement emerged in part due to this concern.

Theories and concepts in technology

There are many theories and concepts that seek to explain the relationship beteen technology and society:
- Appropriate technology
- Diffusion of innovations
- Jacques Ellul's Technological Society, is considered a classic criticism of modern culture's pursuit of technology for its own sake. For more on these ideas see http://www.usd.edu/~ssanto/ellul.html.
- Intermediate technology, more of an economics concern, refers to compromises between central and expensive technologies of developed nations and those which developing nations find most effective to deploy given an excess of labour, and scarcity of cash. In general, a so-called "appropriate" technology will also be "intermediate".
- Persuasion technology, in economics, definitions or assumptions of progress or growth are often related to one or more assumptions about technology's economic influence. Challenging prevailing assumptions about technology and its usefulness has led to alternative ideas like uneconomic growth or measuring well-being. These, and economics itself, can often be described as technologies, specifically, as persuasion technology — a concern covered in its own separate article.
- Posthumanism
- Precautionary principle
- Strategy of technology
- Technocapitalism
- Radovan Richta's theory of technological evolution
- Technological determinism
- Technological diffusion
- Technological singularity
- Technology acceptance model
- Technology lifecycle
- Technology transfer
- Transhumanism

References

- Adas, Michael. Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance, Cornell University Press, 1990.
- Nobel, David. Forces of Production: a social history of industrial automation, New York: Knopf 1984, Paperback Edition: Oxford University Press, 1990.
- McGinn, Robert E. Science, Technology and Society, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1991.
- Monsma, S.V., C. Christians, E.R. Dykema, A. Leegwater, E. Schuurman, and L. VanPoolen. Responsible Technology. Grand Rapids, Michigan (USA): W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1986.
- Roussel, P.A., K. N. Saad, and T. J. Erickson. Third Generation R&D, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press, 1991.
- Winston, M.E. "Children of Invention", in Society, Ethics, and Technology, Second Edition, M.E. Winston and R.D. Edelbach (eds.), Belmont, California (USA): Wadsworth Group/Thomson Learning, 2003.
- Smil, Vaclav. Energy in World History, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994, pp. 259-267, as quoted in http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/Technology/Technology.html, maintained by David W. Koeller, Northpark University, Chicago, Illinois (USA), downloaded September 11, 2005.

External links

- [http://www.pneumatica.be basic pneumatics]
- [http://www.memoryzine.com/cognitivetechnolgy.html Cognitive Technology Journal]
- [http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/bookdescription.cws_home/525392/description#description Cognitive Technology, Elsevier]
- [http://topics.developmentgateway.org/egovernment Development Gateway's e-Government Page] — Depository of various e-government technology resources.
- [http://www.greatachievements.org/ Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century]
- [http://technologybusiness.blogspot.com/ The Business of Technology]
- ko:기술 ms:Teknologi ja:工業 th:เทคโนโลยี

1653

Events

Births

Deaths

List of years in science

The following entries cover events of a science or technology related nature which occurred in the listed year. __NOTOC__ 1500s - 1600s - 1700s - 1800s - 1900s - 2000s

1500s

1500 1501 1502 1503 1504 1505 1506 1507 1508 1509
1510 1511 1512 1513 1514 1515 1516 1517 1518 1519
1520 1521 1522 1523 1524 1525 1526 1527 1528 1529
1530 1531 1532 1533 1534 1535 1536 1537 1538 1539
1540 1541 1542 1543 1544 1545 1546 1547 1548 1549
1550 1551 1552 1553 1554 1555 1556 1557 1558 1559
1560 1561 1562 1563 1564 1565 1566 1567 1568 1569
1570 1571 1572 1573 1574 1575 1576 1577 1578 1579
1580 1581 1582 1583 1584 1585 1586 1587 1588 1589
1590 1591 1592 1593 1594 1595 1596 1597 1598 1599

1600s

1600 1601 1602 1603 1604 1605 1606 1607 1608 1609
1610 1611 1612 1613 1614 1615 1616 1617 1618 1619
1620 1621 1622 1623 1624 1625 1626 1627 1628 1629
1630 1631 1632 1633 1634 1635 1636 1637 1638 1639
1640 1641 1642 1643 1644 1645 1646 1647 1648 1649
1650 1651 1652 1653 1654 1655 1656 1657 1658 1659
1660 1661 1662 1663 1664 1665 1666 1667 1668 1669
1670 1671 1672 1673 1674 1675 1676 1677 1678 1679
1680 1681 1682 1683 1684 1685 1686 1687 1688 1689
1690 1691 1692 1693 1694 1695 1696 1697 1698 1699

1700s

1700 1701 1702 1703 1704 1705 1706 1707 1708 1709
1710 1711 1712 1713 1714 1715 1716 1717 1718 1719
1720 1721 1722 1723 1724 1725 1726 1727 1728 1729
1730 1731 1732 1733 1734 1735 1736 1737 1738 1739
1740 1741 1742 1743 1744 1745 1746 1747 1748 1749
1750 1751 1752 1753 1754 1755 1756 1757 1758 1759
1760 1761 1762 1763 1764 1765 1766 1767 1768 1769
1770 1771 1772 1773 1774 1775 1776 1777 1778 1779
1780 1781 1782 1783 1784 1785 1786 1787 1788 1789
1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799

1800s

1800 1801 1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809
1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819
1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829
1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839
1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849
1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859
1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869
1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879
1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889
1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899

1900s

1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909
1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929
1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939
1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

2000s

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
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Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal (June 19, 1623–August 19,1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher. Pascal was a child prodigy, who was educated by his father. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences, where he made important contributions to the construction of mechanical calculators and the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by expanding the work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote powerfully in defense of the scientific method. He was a mathematician of the first order. In mathematics, Pascal helped create two major new areas of research. He wrote a significant treatise on the subject of projective geometry at the age of sixteen and corresponded with Pierre de Fermat from 1654 on probability theory, strongly influencing the development of modern economics and social science. Following a mystical experience in late 1654, he left mathematics and physics and devoted himself to reflection and writing about philosophy and theology. His two most famous works date from this period: the Lettres provinciales and the Pensées. However, he had suffered from ill-health throughout his life and his new interests were ended by his early death two months after his 39th birthday.

Early life and education

Born in Clermont, in the Auvergne region of France, Blaise Pascal lost his mother, Antoinette Begon, at the age of three. His father, Étienne Pascal (1588–1651), was a local judge and member of the petite noblesse, who also had an interest in science and mathematics. Blaise Pascal was brother to Jacqueline Pascal and two other sisters, only one of whom, Gilberte, survived past childhood. In 1631, Étienne moved with his children to Paris. Étienne decided that he would educate his son, who showed extraordinary mental and intellectual abilities. Young Pascal showed immediate aptitude for mathematics and science, perhaps inspired by his father's regular conversations with Paris' leading geometricians, including Roberval, Mersenne, Desargues, Mydorge, Gassendi, and Descartes. At the age of eleven, he composed a short treatise on the sounds of vibrating bodies and Étienne responded by forbidding his son to further pursue mathematics until the age of fifteen, so as not to harm his study of Latin and Greek. "When asked one day by his father what he was doing, he indicated that he was trying to express the relationship between the angles of a right triangle and two right angles - that is, he was working on what is the thirty-second proposition in book 1 of Euclid's Elements of Geometry. It is not true, as some have said, that he had reinvented the theorems of Euclid to that point, Still, it was an astonishing performance; and it seemed so marvelous to his father that he no longer sought to hold Blaise back in the study of mathematics."(1) Particularly of interest to the young Pascal was the work of Desargues. Following Desargues's thinking, at age sixteen Pascal produced a treatise on conic sections, Essai pour les coniques ("Essay on Conics"). Most of it has been lost, but an important original result has lasted, now known as Pascal's theorem. Pascal's work was so precocious that Descartes, when shown the manuscript, refused to believe that the composition was not by his father. In 1638, Étienne's opposition to fiscal relations of Cardinal Richelieu caused the family to flee Paris. It was only when Jacqueline performed well in a children's play performed in front of Richelieu that Étienne was pardoned. By 1639, the family had moved to Rouen where Étienne became a tax collector. At age eighteen Pascal constructed a mechanical calculator, called Pascal's calculator or the Pascaline, capable of addition and subtraction, to help his father with this work. The Zwinger museum, in Dresden, Germany, exhibits one of his original mechanical calculators. Though these machines stand near the head of the development of computer engineering, the calculator failed to be a great commercial success. Pascal continued to make improvements to his design through the next decade and built a total of fifty machines.

Contributions to mathematics

computer engineering In addition to the childhood marvels recorded above, Pascal continued to influence mathematics throughout his life. In 1653 Pascal wrote his Traité du triangle arithmétique in which he described a convenient tabular presentation for binomial coefficients, the "arithmetical triangle", now called Pascal's triangle. (It should be noted, however, that Yang Hui, a Chinese mathematician of the Qin dynasty, had independently worked out a concept similar to Pascal's triangle four centuries earlier.) In 1654, prompted by a friend interested in gambling problems, he corresponded with Fermat on the subject, and from that collaboration was born the mathematical theory of probabilities. The friend was the Chevalier de Méré, and the specific problem was that of two players who want to finish a game early and, given the current circumstances of the game, want to divide the stakes fairly, based on the chance each has of winning the game from that point. (This was the introduction of the notion of expected value.) Pascal later (in the Pensées) used a probabilistic argument, Pascal's Wager, to justify belief in God and a virtuous life. The work done by Fermat and Pascal into the calculus of probabilities laid important groundwork for Leibniz's formulation of the infinitesimal calculus. [http://www.math.rutgers.edu/courses/436/Honors02/leibniz.html] After a religious experience in 1654, Pascal mostly gave up work in mathematics. However, after a sleepless night in 1658 he offered, anonymously, a prize for the quadrature of a cycloid. Solutions were offered by Wallis, Huygens, Wren, and others; then Pascal, under a pseudonym, published his own solution. A controversy followed in which the competitors, including Pascal, behaved less than philosophically.

Philosophy of mathematics

Pascal's major contribution to the philosophy of mathematics came with his De l'Esprit géométrique ("On the Geometrical Spirit"), originally written as a preface to a geometry textbook for one of the famous "Little Schools of Port-Royal" (Les Petites-Ecoles de Port-Royal). The work was unpublished until over a century after his death. Here Pascal looked into the issue of discovering truths, arguing that the ideal such method would be to found all propositions on already established truths. At the same time, however, he claimed this was impossible because such established truths would require other truths to back them up—first principles cannot be reached. Based on this, Pascal argued that the procedure used in geometry was as perfect as possible, with certain principles assumed and other propositions developed from them. Nevertheless, there was no way to know the assumed principles to be true. In De l'Art de persuader, Pascal looked deeper into geometry's axiomatic method, specifically the question of how people come to be convinced of the axioms upon which later conclusions are based. Pascal agreed with Montaigne that achieving certainty in these axioms and conclusions through human methods is impossible. He asserted that these principles can only be grasped through intuition, and that this fact underscored the necessity for submission to God in searching out truths. Pascal also used De l'Esprit géométrique to develop a theory of definition. He distinguished between definitions which are conventional labels defined by the writer and definitions which are within the language and understood by everyone because they naturally designate their referent. The second type would be characteristic of the philosophy of essentialism. Pascal claimed that only definitions of the first type were important to science and mathematics, arguing that those fields should adopt the philosophy of formalism as formulated by Descartes.

Contributions to the physical sciences

Pascal's work in the fields of the study of fluids (hydrodynamics and hydrostatics) centered on the principles of hydraulic fluids. His inventions include the hydraulic press (using hydraulic pressure to multiply force) and the syringe. By 1646 Pascal had learned of Evangelista Torricelli's experimentation with barometers. Having replicated an experiment which involved placing a tube filled with mercury upside down in a bowl of mercury, Pascal questioned what force kept some mercury in the tube and what filled the space above the mercury in the tube. At the time, most scientists contended that some invisible matter was present there—not a vacuum. Following more experimentation in this vein, in 1647 Pascal produced Experiences nouvelles touchant le vide, which detailed basic rules describing to what degree various liquids could be supported by air pressure. It also provided reasons why it was indeed a vacuum above the column of liquid in a barometer tube. In 1648 Pascal continued his experiments by having his brother-in-law carry a barometer to higher elevation, confirming that the level of mercury would change, a result which Pascal replicated by carrying a barometer up and down a church tower in Paris. The experiment was hailed throughout Europe as finally establishing the principle and value of the barometer. In the face of criticism that some invisible matter existed in Pascal's empty space, Pascal delivered in his reply to Estienne Noel one of the seventeenth century's major statements on the scientific method: "In order to show that a hypothesis is evident, it does not suffice that all the phenomena follow from it; instead, if it leads to something contrary to a single one of the phenomena, that suffices to establish its falsity." His insistence on the existence of the vacuum also led to conflict with a number of other prominent scientists, including Descartes.

Mature life, religion, philosophy, and literature

Descartes

Religious conversion

Biographically, we can say that two basic influences led him to his conversion: sickness and Jansenism. As early as his eighteenth year he suffered from a nervous ailment that left him hardly a day without pain. In 1647 a paralytic attack so disabled him that he could not move without crutches. His head ached, his bowels burned, his legs and feet were continually cold, and required wearisome aids to circulation of the blood; he wore stockings steeped in brandy to warm his feet. Partly to get better medical treatment, he moved to Paris with his sister Jacqueline. His health improved, but his nervous system had been permanently damaged. Henceforth he was subject to deepening hypochondria, which affected his character and his philosophy. He became irritable, subject to fits of proud and imperious anger, and he seldom smiled. In 1646, Pascal's father was wounded in the thigh and was consequently looked after by a Jansenist physician. Blaise spoke with the doctor frequently, and upon his successful treatment of Étienne, borrowed works by Jansenist authors through him. In this period, Pascal experienced a sort of "first conversion" and began in the course of the following year to write on theological subjects. Pascal fell away from this initial religious engagement and experienced a few years of what he called a "worldly period" (1648–54). His father died in 1651, and Pascal gained control over both his inheritance and that of his sister Jacqueline. In the same year Jacqueline moved to become a nun at Port-Royal, despite her brother's opposition. When the time came for her to make her ultimate vows, he refused to return to her enough of her inheritance to pay her dowry as a bride of Christ; without money she would attain a less desirable position in the convent hierarchy. Eventually, however, he relented on this point. When this was settled, Pascal found himself both rich and free. He took a sumptuously furnished home, staffed it with many servants, and drove about Paris in a coach behind four or six horses. His leisure was spent in the company of wits, women, and gamblers (as evidenced by his work on probability). For an exciting while he pursued in Auvergne a lady of beauty and learning, whom he referred to as the "Sappho of the countryside." About this time he wrote a Discours sur les passions de l'amour, and apparently he contemplated marriage—which he was later to describe as "the lowest of the conditions of life permitted to a Christian." Jacqueline reproached him for his frivolity and prayed for his reform. During visits to his sister at Port-Royal in 1654, he displayed contempt for affairs of the world but was not drawn to God. Until...

Upon brink of death

In late 1654 he was involved in an accident at the Neuilly bridge where the horses plunged over the parapet and the carriage nearly followed them. Fortunately, the reins broke and the coach hung half over the edge. Pascal and his friends emerged, but the sensitive philosopher, terrified by the nearness of death, fainted away, and remained unconscious for some time. Upon recovering fifteen days later, on November 23, 1654, between ten thirty and twelve thirty at night, Pascal had an intense religious vision and immediately recorded the experience in a brief note to himself, which began: "Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars…" and concluded by quoting Psalm 119:16: "I will not forget thy word. Amen." He seems carefully to have sewn this document into his coat and always transferred it when he changed clothes; a servant discovered it only by chance after his death. During his lifetime, Pascal was often mistakenly thought to be a libertine, and was later dismissed as an individual who had only a deathbed conversion. His belief and religious commitment revitalized, Pascal visited the older of two convents at Port-Royal for a two-week retreat in January 1655. For the next four years, he regularly traveled between Port-Royal and Paris. It was at this point immediately after his conversion when he began writing his first major literary work on religion, the Provincial Letters.

The Provincial Letters

Beginning in 1656, Pascal published his memorable attack on casuistry, a popular ethical method used by Catholic thinkers in the early modern period (especially the Jesuits). Pascal denounced casuistry as the mere use of complex reasoning to justify moral laxity. His method of framing his arguments was clever: the Provincial Letters pretended to be the report of a Parisian to a friend in the provinces on the moral and theological issues then exciting the intellectual and religious circles in the capital. Pascal, combining the fervor of a convert with the wit and polish of a man of the world, reached a new level of style in French prose. The 18-letter series was published between 1656 and 1657 under the pseudonym Louis de Montalte and incensed Louis XIV, who ordered in 1660 that the book be shredded and burnt. In 1661, the Jansenist school at Port-Royal was condemned and closed down; those involved in it had to sign a 1656 papal bull condemning the teachings of Jansen as heretical. The final letter defied the Pope himself, provoking Alexander VII to condemn the letters (September 6, 1657). But that didn't stop all of educated France from reading them. Even Pope Alexander, while publicly opposing them, nonetheless was persuaded by Pascal's arguments. He condemned "laxism" in the church and ordered a revision of casuistical texts just a few years later (1665–66). Aside from their religious influence, the Lettres provinciales were popular as a literary work. Pascal's use of humor, mockery, and vicious satire in his arguments made the letters ripe for public consumption, and influenced the prose of later French writers like Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The first few letters promote major principles of Jansenist teaching, for instance the dogmas of "proximate power" (Letter I) and "sufficient grace" (Letter II), and explain why they are not heretical. The later letters find Pascal more on the defensive—pressure on the Port Royal Jansenists to renounce their teachings was constantly growing through this time—and contain the assault on casuistry. Letter XIV contains the unique apology, "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time." Wide praise has been given to the Provincial Letters. Voltaire called the Letters "the best-written book that has yet appeared in France." And when Bossuet was asked what book he would rather have written had he not written his own, he answered, the Provincial Letters of Pascal.

Miracle

When Pascal was back in Paris just after overseeing the publication of the last Letter, his religion was reinforced by the close association to an apparent miracle in the chapel of the Port-Royal nunnery. His 10-year-old niece, Marguerite Périer, was suffering from a painful fistula lacrymalis that exuded noisome pus through her eyes and nose—an affliction the doctors pronounced hopeless. Then on March 24, 1657, a believer had presented to Port-Royal what he and others claimed to be a thorn from the crown that had tortured Christ. The nuns, in solemn ceremony and singing psalms, placed the thorn on their altar. Each in turn kissed the relic, and one of them, seeing Marguerite among the worshipers, took the thorn and with it touched the girl's sore. That evening, we are told, Marguerite expressed surprise that her eye no longer pained her; her mother was astonished to find no sign of the fistula; a physician, summoned, reported that the discharge and swelling had disappeared. He, not the nuns, spread word of what he termed a miraculous cure. Seven other physicians who had had previous knowledge of Marguerite's fistula subscribed a statement that in their judgment a miracle had taken place. The diocesan officials investigated, came to the same conclusion, and authorized a Te Deum Mass in Port-Royal. Crowds of believers came to see and kiss the thorn; all Catholic Paris acclaimed a miracle. Later both Jansenists and Catholics used this well-documented miracle to their defense. In 1728, Pope Benedict XIII referred to the case as proving that the age of miracles had not passed. Pascal made himself an armorial emblem of an eye surrounded by a crown of thorns, with the inscription Scio cui credidi—"I know whom I have believed." His beliefs renewed, he set his mind to write his final, and alas, unfinished testament, the Pensées.

The Pensées

Unfortunately, Pascal couldn't finish his most influential theological work, the Pensées, before his death. It was to have been a sustained and coherent examination of and defense of the Christian faith, with the original title Apologie de la religion Chrétienne ("Defense of the Christian Religion"). What was found upon sifting through his personal items after his death were numerous scraps of paper with isolated thoughts, grouped in a tentative, but telling, order. The first version of the detached notes appeared in print as a book in 1670 titled Pensées de M. Pascal sur la réligion, et sur quelques autres sujets ("Thoughts of M. Pascal on religion, and on other subjects") and soon thereafter became a classic. Because his friends and the scholars at Port-Royal were concerned that these fragmentary "thoughts" might lead to skepticism rather than to piety, they concealed the skeptical pieces and modified some of the rest, lest King or Church should take offense for at that time the persecution of Port-Royal had ceased, and the editors were not interested in a renewal of controversy. Not until the nineteenth century were the Pensées published in their full and authentic text. Pascal's Pensées is widely considered to be a masterpiece, and a landmark in French prose. When commenting on one particular section, Sainte-Beuve praised it as the finest pages in the French language. Will Durant, in his 11-volume, comprehensive The Story of Civilization series, hailed it as "the most eloquent book in French prose." In Pensées, Pascal surveys several philosophical paradoxes: infinity and nothing, faith and reason, soul and matter, death and life, meaning and vanity—seemingly arriving at no definitive conclusions besides humility, ignorance, and grace. Rolling these into one he develops Pascal's Wager.

Last works and death

T.S. Eliot described him during this phase of his life as "a man of the world among ascetics, and an ascetic among men of the world." Pascal's ascetic lifestyle derived from a belief that it was natural and necessary for man to suffer. In his last years of bad health, he frequently tried to reject the ministrations of his doctors, saying, "Sickness is the natural state of Christians." In 1659 Pascal, whose health had never been good, fell seriously ill. An autopsy performed after his death revealed grave problems with his stomach and other organs of his abdomen, along with damage to his brain. Despite the autopsy, the cause of his continual poor health was never precisely determined, though speculation focuses on tuberculosis, stomach cancer, or a combination of the two. The headaches which afflicted Pascal are generally attributed to his brain lesion. Louis XIV suppressed the Jansenist movement at Port-Royal in 1661. In response, Pascal wrote one of his final works, Écrit sur la signature du formulaire, exhorting the Jansenists not to give in. Later that year, his sister Jacqueline died, which convinced Pascal to cease his polemics on Jansenism. Pascal's last major achievement, returning to his mechanical genius, was inaugurating perhaps the first bus line, moving passengers within Paris in a carriage with many seats. In 1662, Pascal's illness became more violent. Aware that he had little chance to survive, he sought a move to the hospital for incurable diseases, but his doctors declared that he was too unstable to be carried. In Paris on August 18, 1662, Pascal went into convulsions and received extreme unction. He died the next morning, his last words being "May God never abandon me," and was buried in the cemetery of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont.

Legacy

In honor of his scientific contributions, the name Pascal has been given to the SI unit of pressure, to a programming language, and Pascal's law (an important principle of hydrostatics), and as mentioned above, Pascal's triangle and Pascal's wager still bear his name. In Canada, there is an annual math contest named in his honour. The Pascal Contest is open to any student in Canada that is 14 years or under and is in grade 9 or lower. Pascal's development of probability theory was his most influential contribution to mathematics. Originally applied to gambling, today it is extremely important in economics, especially in actuarial science. John Ross writes, "Probability theory and the discoveries following it changed the way we regard uncertainty, risk, decision-making, and an individual's and society's ability to influence the course of future events." [http://www.nature.com/embor/journal/v5/n1s/full/7400229.html] However, it should be noted that Pascal and Fermat, though doing important early work in probability theory, did not develop the field very far. Christiaan Huygens, learning of the subject from the correspondence of Pascal and Fermat, wrote the first book on the subject. Later figures who continued the development of the theory include Abraham de Moivre and Pierre-Simon Laplace. In literature, Pascal is regarded as one of the most important authors of the French Classical Period, and is read today as one of the greatest masters of French prose. His use of satire and wit influenced later polemicists. The content of his literary work is best remembered for its strong opposition to the rationalism of René Descartes and simultaneous assertion that the main countervailing philosophy, empiricism, was also insufficient for determining major truths. A discussion of Pascal figures prominently in the movie My Night At Maud's by the French director Eric Rohmer.

Works

- Essai pour les coniques (1639)
- Experiences nouvelles touchant le vide (1647)
- Traité du triangle arithmétique (1653)
- Lettres provinciales (1656–57)
- De l'Esprit géométrique (1657 or 1658)
- Écrit sur la signature du formulaire (1661)
- Pensées (incomplete at death)

References

- Broome, JH. Pascal. ISBN 0713150211
- (1)Davidson, Hugh M.,Blaise Pascal.Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1983.
- Muir, Jane. Of Men and Numbers. New York: Dover Publications, Inc, 1996. ISBN 0486289737
- Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 1967 edition, s.v. "Pascal, Blaise."
- Pascal, Blaise. Oeuvres complètes. Paris: Seuil, 1960.

Notes

# Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, I, 89. # Muir, 93. # Pascal, Pensées, Havet ed. Introd., p. civ. # Mesnard, Pascal, 57. # Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 52. # Oeuvres complètes, 618. # Voltaire, Age of Louis XIV 424, 358. # Voltaire, Age of Louis XIV 359. # Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, III, 173f.; Beard, Charles, Port-Royal, I 84. # Pascal, Pensées, Introduction, p. xxviii; Mesnard, Pascal, 137-138. # Sainte-Beuve, Seventeenth Century, 174. # Durant, The Age of Louis XIV, 66. # Muir, 103. # Muir, 104.

External links

-
- [http://www.nndb.com/people/976/000024904/ Biography] at NNDB.
- Etext of Pascal's [http://www.ccel.org/p/pascal/pensees/pensees.htm Pensées] (English, in various formats)
- Etext of Pascal's [http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/pascal/letters-a.html Lettres Provinciales] (English)
- Etext of a number of Pascal's [http://www.bartleby.com/48/3/ minor works] (English translation) including, among others, De l'Esprit géométrique and De l'Art de persuader.
- [http://www.nature.com/embor/journal/v5/n1s/full/7400229.html "Pascal's Legacy"], an article by John Ross on the influence of Pascal's probability theory.
- [http://fermatslasttheorem.blogspot.com/2005/09/blaise-pascal.html Blaise Pascal], An article from the Fermat's Last Theorem Blog.
- [http://www.biblioweb.org/-PASCAL-Blaise-.html Biography, Bibliography.] (in French) Pascal, Blaise Pascal, Blaise Pascal, Blaise Pascal, Blaise Pascal, Blaise Pascal Pascal, Blaise Pascal, Blaise Pascal, Blaise Pascal, Blaise Pascal, Blaise Pascal, Blaise Pascal, Blaise Pascal, Blaise ko:블레즈 파스칼 ja:ブレーズ・パスカル

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