A Synthetic Study of Probability and Certainty at the Time of Pascal

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This study aims to clear up the problem of certainty and probability in Pascal's thought by analysis of his various texts such as scientific, political and religious works, and to point out at the basis of this problem a series of important conceptions which form one of his fundamental themes : distinction, violation, and reversal of "orders". While the stable orders of geometry, language or political regime, lose their certainty and start shaking if we bring their origin into question, the probability peculiar to the orders of body, custom, or people, turns into certainty by the reversal of the orders. This is one of the original features of Pascal's thought.