Chapter 8 By Blaise Pascal Sparknotes

On June 19, 1623, Blaise Pascual was born, and on August 19, 1662, he died. He was a French mathematician, physicist, religious philosopher, and master of prose. Between the summers of 1657 and 1658, he wrote the most famous chapter of his Pensées, or Thoughts. Pascal used game theory elements in his Pensées to demonstrate that belief in the Christian religion is rational. He contended that people can choose to believe in God or not, and that God is neither. Philosopher Blaise Pascal's Pensées (1670) was a collection of some 800 to 1,000 notes and manuscript fragments expressing his religious beliefs. In this written work, Blaise Pascal explains humanity, its wonders, the cosmos, the natural world, the senses, and both the benefits and drawbacks

The author suggests that people look at the stars and consider how massive their orbits are, which shows the true size of the Earth and other small objects. Through this perspective, people can gain a greater appreciation for the vastness of the universe and their place within it. As stated by the author, even when we use our imagination to try to imagine the vastness of the universe, we cannot fully understand its enormity. The universe is an infinite sphere that is so immense that our ideas and imagination cannot even approach it. The author believes that this infinite nature is the greatest indication of God's power and is so vast that our imagination cannot comprehend it. People should return to themselves after considering the vastness of the universe and reflecting on their place within it. The author proposes that people consider themselves insignificant in comparison to the vastness of the universe and that they use this perspective to understand the true worth of the earth, kingdoms, cities, and themselves. People can gain a better appreciation for the world around them and their role in it by recognizing their small place in the

He tells us to look at low objects and to use and expand our imagination to see all the wonderful things in this world. If we only focus on one thing, we will never truly understand everything in the world. After Blaise Pascal has learned to view life by focusing on the "low objects" and saying that after noticing their presence, we must examine them carefully to see what their use to this life may be, or in other words, the paragraphs starting from the fourth until the seventh paragraph talk about how Blaise Pascal views this world of ours. He starts this by saying he will let man realize he is nothing but a speck in the universe. To other specimens in this big galaxy of ours, we humans are the "low objects." To Blaise Pascal, life is useless. He thinks that humans are beings who cannot handle "too much," to shorten the things he had said in the sixth and seventh paragraphs: "Humans who have it all complain they have too little." "Humans who have little to none claim to have the world in their entire hands." Each one of us is different from one another, hence our diverse views and interpretations of "low objects." Each one of us has our limits and ambitions in life. As we focus on and view these "low objects," we may come up with different interpretations and conclusions due to our reasons, like our limits and ambitions. It is stated in paragraph 7 that the pursuit