Early modern · 1623–1662
Who influenced Blaise Pascal?
Influences and legacy
The heart has its reasons: geometer, probabilist, and Christianity's sharpest pessimist.
Blaise Pascal was influenced by Epictetus, and went on to influence Søren Kierkegaard. That is 2 lines of the 448 documented lines of influence between the 279 thinkers on this map.
Read on Wikipedia Portrait: unknown; a copy of the painting of François II Quesnel, which was made for Gérard Edelinck en 1691 [réf. nécessaire]., Public domain See the whole map
![Portrait: unknown; a copy of the painting of François II Quesnel, which was made for Gérard Edelinck en 1691 [réf. nécessaire]., Public domain](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blaise_Pascal_Versailles.JPG){kind=link}
Who was Blaise Pascal?
A child prodigy taught by his father, Pascal wrote a treatise on conic sections at sixteen, later worked out probability theory in letters with Pierre de Fermat, and built one of the first mechanical calculators, the Pascaline. In physics he clarified pressure and vacuum by extending Torricelli's work, and the SI unit of pressure bears his name. He even set up the first modern public transport service.
After a religious experience in 1654 he turned to philosophy and theology, siding with the Jansenists. His Provincial Letters attack their Jesuit opponents, and his Pensées contain Pascal's wager, a probabilistic argument for believing in God. He died in Paris at 39.
Summarized from the lead of the Wikipedia article.
Who influenced Blaise Pascal?
1 direct influence on this map, earliest first.
- Epictetus AD 50–135
Who did Blaise Pascal influence?
1 thinker on this map draws directly on Blaise Pascal.
- Søren Kierkegaard 1813–1855
The line of teachers behind Blaise Pascal
The longest documented line of influence ending at Blaise Pascal runs 9 generations back, to Thales of Miletus.
Two steps away from Blaise Pascal
Indirect influences
- Through Epictetus: Zeno of Citium, Musonius Rufus
The second generation
Contemporaries of Blaise Pascal
Thinkers on this map born within 25 years of Blaise Pascal, with no direct line between them.
- Margaret Cavendish 1623–1673
- Anne Conway 1631–1679
- John Locke 1632–1704
- Baruch Spinoza 1632–1677
- Nicolas Malebranche 1638–1715
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 1646–1716
- Pierre Bayle 1647–1706
Blaise Pascal by the numbers
- Direct influences
- 1
- Direct followers
- 1
- Thinkers upstream
- 12
- Thinkers downstream
- 25
- Wikipedia languages
- 135 — #9 of 36 among early modern philosophers
- Card rarity
- Legendary
Questions about Blaise Pascal
- Who influenced Blaise Pascal?
- Epictetus.
- Who did Blaise Pascal influence?
- Søren Kierkegaard.
- When did Blaise Pascal live?
- 1623–1662. The map files Blaise Pascal under the early modern period.
- How rare is the Blaise Pascal card?
- Wikipedia carries an article on Blaise Pascal in 135 languages, which makes it a Legendary card. Legendary starts at 100 languages, Epic at 50 and Rare at 25.
More early modern philosophers
- René Descartes 1596–1650
- Immanuel Kant 1724–1804
- Voltaire 1694–1778
- Adam Smith 1723–1790
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712–1778
- Niccolò Machiavelli 1469–1527
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 1646–1716
- John Locke 1632–1704