Born in Clermont-Ferrand in 1623, France, Blaise Pascal was mostly raised by his father, Etienne. Pascal's mother passed away when he was merely three years old. Five years later, the family moved to Paris, where Etienne took over Pascal's education for himself. This meant no teachers, no formal schooling, no university at all. In fact, mathematics wasn't even in Etienne's plan for Pascal until the age of 15.

However, the boy Pascal took things into his own hands. By the time he was 12, had taught himself enough geometry to be found working with "bars" and "rounds" (lines and circles) toward a proof of Euclid's Proposition 32. This changed his father's mind and educational plans, and Pascal was given a copy of Euclid's Elements.

For almost all of his life, Pascal suffered from poor health. From 1639, at age 16, until 1654, when he turned from mathematics and science to theology and philosophy, Pascal contributed much to the different fields of mathematics and science. These are covered here.

In 1654, Pascal had some sort of religeous awakening, and joined the Jansenist Movement, a splinter group from the Catholic Church. Following his conversion, he began work on his Provincial Letters, which were published between 1656 under the pseudonym Louis de Montalte.

Pascal's other major theological work was published posthumously under the title Pensees ("Thoughts") covered a wide variety of topics, including many of the universe's seeming contradictions. The work comes to no definite conclusions but those of "humility, ignorance and grace." These are some of the major portions of Pascal's Wager.

On 18 August 1662, Pascal's illness, which had been becoming worse and worse over time, finally became too much for him to bear. He went into convulsions, and the next day, 19 August 1662, the life and times of a Mathematical, Scientific, and Philosophic giant came to an end. His autopsy shed some light on his condition, and discovered "grave problems with his stomach and other organs of his abdomen", as well as some brain-damage. Speculation about his poor health focused on "tuberculosis, stomach cancer, or a combination fo the two." His headaches "are generally attributed to his brain lesion."