The Collected Works of Blaise Pascal

A new translation of Pascal's core mathematical and geometrical works, which include commentary on scientific progress, Morality, Theology and Sociological topics. This new Reader's Edition from LP contains a new Afterword by the translator on Pascal's personal relationship with Descartes and his intellectual objections to the new Cartesian rationality which at base changed the course of both Science and Philosophy. Additional materials include a short biography on Pascal's life and impact, a useful timeline of his life and relationships, an index of his core Philosophic terminology, a chronological summary of all of his published and posthumous works, and the text of Pascal's Memorial, a poetic, fragmented account of his divine vision in 1654. These extra materials introduce the reader to Pascal's metaphysical works and his environment bringing to life Pascal's witness of the dawn of a new Scientific age.

This is volume 1 of the 7 part Complete Works of Pascal. This volume covers Pascal's early work in mathematics, science, and engineering, as well as his Scientific Philosophical commentary on the Enlightenment's Scientific progress. This translation of Pascal's 1648 "The History of the Roulette Line, Otherwise known as the Trochoid or Cycloid" contains Pascal's two additions to the text "Continuation of the History of Roulette" (December 1658) and "Addition Following the History of Roulette" (January 1659). The 1647 work "Treatise on Emptiness & New Experiments Concerning the Vacuum" is Pascal's paper proving the existence of Vacuums (something his modern Descartes and the Scientific world believed impossible) along with a treatise on the philosophic ramifications of new scientific discoveries.

The original French title of his paper on vacuums is "Expériences nouvelles touchant le vide" and the fragment of the unfinished "preface to the Treatise on Emptiness" (Fragment de préface pour le traité du vide) first written in October 1647. Together, these two papers provide a detailed view into the mind of the Scientist Theologian Pascal. In September 1647 in Pais, René Descartes met with Pascal over this topic of the vacuum. Descartes' mechanistic understanding of Physics led to his skepticism over the possibility of a vacuum, but Pascal almost convinced him.This meeting was arranged by Father Mersenne, a mutual acquaintance who was deeply involved in the intellectual circles of the time.