Hi, I'm Peter Adamson, and you're listening to the History of Philosophy podcast, brought to you with the support of the philosophy department at King's College London and the LM, online at historyof philosophy.net.

Today's episode, Between Infinity and the Void, Blaise Pascal.

From the vantage point of our modern secular age, the 17th century presents a paradox.

On the one hand, it was the century that saw the beginnings of modern science,

discoveries coming thick and fast thanks to empirical methodology and improved instrumentation.

On the other hand, it was a deeply religious, some might say superstitious time,

when political controversies

and major European wars still raged over theological issues that are nowadays largely forgotten.

In fact, you don't have to survey the whole century to locate this fault line.

It runs right through the career of a single man, Blaise Pascal.

He was one of the foremost mathematical and scientific minds of the age, yet right through the career of a single man, Blaise Pascal.

He was one of the foremost mathematical and scientific minds of the age,

yet also one of its most heartfelt spiritual authors.

Nor is the apparent tension between these two sides of his thought,

only an anachronistic figment in the minds of today's readers.

Pascal noticed it too, saying that he deliberately abandoned the sciences to study humankind instead.

He felt it was a sound choice, writing,

knowledge of the laws of morality will always console me for lack of knowledge of the

physical sciences.

We can date the turn in his biography with unusual precision.

It was on the evening of November 23, 1654, that Pascal had a mystical experience

that inspired him to write down a memorial of religious piety, which he kept on his person

...