I. Life and Work

Pascal, “one of the world’s sublimest spirits” (P. Bayle), was born to a magistrate’s family in the Auvergne. His father, Étienne Pascal (1588–1651), a royal tax assessor, was appointed presiding judge of the tax court in Clermont in 1624. Pascal’s mother died in 1626. In 1631 his father sold his position and moved to Paris, where along with mathematical studies…