Justice and Force

Pascal’s ideas are important for anyone in a position with the force of authority. The authority of Scoutmasters, parents, managers, and leaders is only legitimate when it is just.

Justice, force.–It is proper that what is just should be obeyed; it is necessary that what is strongest should be obeyed.

Justice without force is helpless; whereas the use of force without justice is tyrannical.

Justice without force is futile, for there shall always be the wicked; but force without justice is always to be condemned. It follows that we must always combine justice and force and, to this end, what is just must always be made strong, or what is strong just. –Blaise Pascal (June 19, 1623 – August 19, 1662) From Wikipedia ; Educated by his father French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher Blaise Pascal was a child prodigy.

Pascal’s earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the construction of mechanical calculators, the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalizing the work of Evangelista Torricelli.

Pascal also wrote powerfully in defense of the scientific method. He was a mathematician of the first order.

Pascal helped create two major new areas of research. He wrote a significant treatise on the subject of projective geometry at the age of sixteen and corresponded with Pierre de Fermat from 1654 and later on probability theory, strongly influencing the development of modern economics and social science.

Following a mystical experience in late 1654, he abandoned his scientific work and devoted himself to philosophy and theology. His two most famous works date from this period: the Lettres provinciales and the Pensées. More Good People – Good Ideas on Scoutmaster