PASCAL, DEVOUT SAVANT: SCIENCE, RELIGION, AND THE LEARNED COMMUNITY IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PARIS By DANIEL T. JULICH A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2009 1 © 2009 Daniel T. Julich 2 To Sarah, Olivia, and Cecily 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I gratefully acknowledge my debts to my adviser, Dr. Robert A. Hatch, whose encouragement and input are evident on each page of this dissertation. His insights into the craft of writing history and into the psychological challenge of such a large project have sustained me throughout my doctoral studies. I also wish to acknowledge the other members of my committee: Drs. John Biro, Frederick Gregory, Howard Louthan, and Maria Portuondo. Dr. Susan Read Baker provided insight, resources, and sympathy for the project during its early stages. I also thank Dr. Richard Horner, Director of the Christian Study Center of Gainesville, for offering timely advice and for the opportunity to share my interest in Pascal with a wider audience. I am grateful to Todd Bohlander, who willingly and ably assisted me in the verification and improvement of the Latin translations and to Betty June Moninger, who read and corrected the penultimate draft. I cannot omit mention of the enormous debt that I owe my parents for many years of support and for sympathy for my academic goals. Finally, I thank Sarah, whose sacrifices in the completion of this study have been numerous and onerous. I would not have finished without her unfailing support. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................9 ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................10 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................12 Pascal: Contested Identities ....................................................................................................12 Fragmented Pascal ..................................................................................................................15 First Source: Pascal’s Life ...............................................................................................15 Posthumous Biographical Accounts and the Pensées .....................................................16 Childlikeness and Maturity in the Historiography of Pascal ..................................................18 Pascal’s Character and the Essai Pour Les Coniques .....................................................22 Religion and Childlikeness ..............................................................................................23 Influences of Childhood: The Mersenne Group ..............................................................29 Mature Virtues in Pascal Historiography ...............................................................................31 Childhood and Childlikeness in the Early Modern Period .....................................................33 Childlikeness and the Historicity of Childhood and Youth .............................................35 The Virtues and Vices of Childhood ...............................................................................38 Overview & Summary ............................................................................................................45 2 PASCAL IN THE TEMPLE: A NEW ARCHIMEDES AND HIS EARLY TRAINING .....48 Mersenne and His Circle ........................................................................................................48 The Mersenne Circle: Its Organizer, Members, and Purpose .........................................50 Mersenne’s Educational Goals and the Order of the Minims .........................................51 The Beatific Completion of Mathematics: Mersenne’s Vision ..............................................53 Mathematics as Epistemological Foundation ..................................................................53 Mathematics as Divine Science .......................................................................................55 God and mathematical objects .................................................................................55 God the transcendent geometer ................................................................................56 Mathematics as Imitation of God ....................................................................................58 Apprenticeship to a divine artisan ............................................................................58 Actualizing the infinite potentialities of mathematics ..............................................60 Approximating the heavenly state ............................................................................60 Finding Talent in Unexpected Places .....................................................................................62 Recruiting the “Best Minds” to Perfect Mathematical Disciplines .................................62 Recovering Ancient Analysis: Searching for “New Archimedeses” ..............................66 Promoting Provincial Talent ............................................................................................68 Mersenne’s Investment in Youthful Talent .....................................................................71 Two “New Archimedeses”: Pascal and Christiaan Huygens ..........................................73 Mersenne and the youthful Pascal ............................................................................73 5 Pascal’s counterpart: Christiaan Huygens ................................................................77 The Mersenne Circle and Pascal’s Mathematical Apprenticeship .........................................82 Pedagogical Interests and Activities of the Participants ..................................................82 Desargues: self-taught master ..................................................................................83 Roberval: university connection ...............................................................................87 Le Pailleur: fatherly poet ..........................................................................................90 Étienne Pascal ..........................................................................................................91 The Académie as an Educational Alternative ..................................................................92 Pascal’s Model of Mathematical Success ...............................................................................98 3 PAINFUL LEGITIMATION: NATURE, DISCIPLINE, EXERCISE ................................101 Inclinations and Intellectual Pursuits in Context ..................................................................102 Classification of Inclinations .........................................................................................102 Intellectual Inclinations and the Choice of Career ........................................................103 Huarte’s Examen and types of esprit ......................................................................103 Bartoli and the relationship between inclination and effort ...................................105 The Ratio studiorum and selection through inclination .........................................107 Mersenne and the Limits of Intellectual Inclinations ...........................................................107 Mersenne’s Rejection of Determinism for Intellectual Inclinations .............................108 Astrological determinism .......................................................................................108 Temperament and inclination .................................................................................110 “Nature, Discipline, Exercise”: Necessary Components for Learning ..........................111 Becoming Archimedes: Working for Legitimacy ................................................................117 Imitating the Creator: Pascal’s Calculating Machine ....................................................118 Narrative summary .................................................................................................118 Trouble with clockmakers ......................................................................................122 Technicians and theorists in the work of Desargues ..............................................124 Pascal’s defense .............................................................................................................128 Novelty, rashness, and daring ................................................................................129 Imitating God in the act of creation .......................................................................131 Monstrosities: Trial and error .................................................................................132 Endorsements compared ........................................................................................138 The machine as transcendent ..................................................................................142 Childlikeness and the Arithmetic Machine ...................................................................146 The Controversy