In the Pensées, Blaise Pascal, speaks of science as vanity.
Thoughts, 23, Vanity of science
Vanity of sciences.
“The science of the external things will not comfort me of the ignorance of the morals in times of affliction, but the science of morals will always console me of the ignorance of external sciences
Explanations
Blaise Pascal shows how in his judgments, in his actions, in his joys as well as in his hates, the human being is always miserable. This is the misery of human nature, even in the field of science. Attention: ‘science’ did not have the same meaning as today. Science, at that time, was knowledge.
See a confusion that became famous because of this change in meaning → François Rabelais ‘science without conscience’ (explanations)
Blaise Pascal was born in 1623 in Clermont-Ferrand and died in 1662. The Pensées were a work published posthumously in 1669, from the fragments he left behind.
