Pascal & the two Infinities

27 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in French Literature, Human Condition

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duality, Galileo, Montaigne, Montesquieu, Pascal, relativity, space, the infinite, Weltanschauung, WordPress

Blaise Pascal

In his writings about the human condition, Les Pensées or Thoughts, French scientist, inventor and philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), positioned mankind between the infinitely large and the infinitely small (Pensées, 199-72*). He wrote that compared to the universe, humans are infinitely small. However, compared to a microscopic mite, he called un ciron, humans are infinitely large.

Infinity is a central concept in Pascal’s Weltanschauung or world view. One of his Pensées, perhaps the most poetical, expresses fear of the infinite. He writes that “[he] fears the eternal silence of space infinite” (my translation): “Le silence éternel de ces espaces infinis m’effraie” (201-206 B).

That Pascal should have been in awe of space infinite is not altogether surprising. The main discovery of the Renaissance, the sixteenth century mainly, may well have been planet Earth’s place in the Universe. Until Copernicus (1473-1543), possibly earlier, planet Earth was looked upon as the centre of the Universe.

But Copernicus placed the Sun at the centre of the universe, thereby introducing heliocentrism. Later, Galileo Galilei (1564-1652) also observed that the Earth revolved around the Sun. Such was not the thinking of the Church, so Galileo had to recant on his observation for fear of facing an untimely and painful death.

Although Pascal was a scientist, the Pensées have a spiritual dimension. In this regard, Pascal’s thoughts on the two infinites resemble his definition of man’s duality. Humans are mortals, misère, but they can think and know, therefore, but they are miserable. We are mere reeds, but we think: le roseau pensant (the thinking reed). Hence our grandeur or nobility. The fact that humans know they are mortals constitute a redeeming feature. We are neither beasts nor angels.

I have already spoken of Pascal’s symmetrical thinking: la misère/la grandeur and must note it again. Pascal discussed our duality, the humaine condition and also does it in his cosmology, thereby giving us, once again, a redeeming half. Without the infinitely small, the infinitely large would engulf humankind. So, as I used to tell my students, it was nice of Pascal to bring us back, and down, to Earth.

However, I regret the fact that we did not devote sufficient time to the infinities. We associate relativity with Einstein, but long before Einstein theory of relativity, relativity was also a humanistic concept.

Pascal’s two infinities are a most eloquent expression of relativity. For instance, not unlike Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), Pascal states that what is an error on one side of the Pyrenees, is truth on the other side of same Pyrenees: “Vérité au-deça [this side] des Pyrénées, erreur au-delà.”

This is the case with justice and jurisprudence. An act may legal in one land and illegal in another land. So there is arbitrariness about justice, a thought which led to French Enlightenment’s Montesquieu’s (1689-1755) De l’Esprit des Lois (The Spirit of the Laws). Montesquieu will be discussed in a future post.

For the time being, all I wish to reflect on is that as Christopher Colombus sailed towards India, Galileo and Pascal were exploring space and Montaigne and Pascal were pondering relativity.

*Lafuma and Brunschvicg classification

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The Procrustean Bed

15 Monday Aug 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

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freedom, justice, labyrinth, Phaedra, Procrustes, relativity, theory, Theseus

In a version of this blog, now erased, I said that once some of my first-year students said to me that, since they were now adults, i. e. away from parental guidance, they were free to scream at the top of their lungs, during initiation. My response was that their freedom ended where mine began. And I also said that, henceforth, I would treat them as adults. When they were in a drunken stupor and screaming as loudly as they could, I would not phone Campus Security, but the local detachment of the Canadian Royal Mounted Police (RCMP).

However, in my next blog, I stated that many of these same students had matured and that, as adults, they had not ceased to amaze me. For instance, they had learned that, although they were individuals, they lived in a collectivity and that, under acceptable circumstances, they had to respect members of that collectivity.

Occasionally, those students would ask for my opinion on various topics. I did not like giving my opinion. They had to adopt their own values. As a result, the only comment ever offered when we discussed thorny issues, was that, in my view, morality ended where inhumanity began. This, I would add, had often been my beacon when making decisions. There are so many murky areas and shades of grey galore.

I also told my students that there were times when a rule had to be broken in the interest of justice or some higher value. Justice, I would explain, can be a Procrustean bed as is also the case with bureaucracy. Greek mythology’s Procrustes, had an iron bed. If a person he laid on his bed did not fit it from end to end, he would stretch that person. Conversely, if the person was too tall, Procrustes resorted to an amputation.

In other words, I would tell them that one cannot rearrange reality to fit a theory. Certain things change, others remain. Certain things are right and others, wrong, but what about the rest? The meaning of a word can change if the word is used in a different context: denotation vs connotation i.e, “mistress” and “to record” vs “to throw away old records.”

Similarly, the notion of freedom has fluctuations. It is relative. However, I would add there are times when a crime is a crime is a crime.

Life can be a labyrinth. I hope my students got an education that is useful to them. I loved them and I miss them.