Sunday Philosophy

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a French philosopher whose ideas flowed from his study of mathematics. The following suggests the logic, if not exactly the form, of mathematics:

"The world is a good judge of things, for it is in
natural ignorance, which is man's true state.
The sciences have two extremes which meet.
The first is the pure natural ignorance in which
all men find themselves at birth. The other
extreme is that reached by great intellects,
who, having run through all that men can know,
find they know nothing, and come back again to
that same ignorance from which they set out;
but this is a learned ignorance which is conscious
of itself. Those between the two, who have
departed from natural ignorance and not been
able to reach the other, have some smattering
of this vain knowledge and pretend to be wise.
These trouble the world and are bad judges of
everything. The people and the wise constitute
the world; these despise it, and are despised.
They judge badly of everything, and the world
judges rightly of them."