The wager by blaise pascal blaise pascal, thoemmes about the author early in life blaise pascal 16231662 pursued interests in physics and mathematics. According to pascal, how much can be known about god. May 06, 2012 the flaws of pascals wager an argument often used by religious people is that they have nothing to lose by believing in god and that atheists are risking eternity in hell for no gain. Pascals wager is the name given to an argument due to blaise pascal for believing, or for at least taking steps to believe, in god. The wager by blaise pascal certainly true of every finite number. This document has been generated from xsl extensible stylesheet language source with renderx xep formatter, version 3. Blaise pascal 16231662 is recognized as a man who set forth a new kind of reasoning as an apology of christian religion.
Pascals wager, practical argument for belief in god formulated by blaise pascal. Reconstruct pascals wager as carefully as possible. Aug 08, 2018 this core concept video focuses on blaise pascals unfinished work, the pensees, specifically on his famous wager about the existence of god. Before actually reading pensees, i knew blaise pascal and his pensees only from snippets of quotes such as, the heart has its reason of which reason knows nothing and from pascal s wager. The thoughts of blaise pascal online library of liberty. He discusses with great wonder and beauty the human condition, the incarnation, god, the meaning of life, revelation, and the paradoxes of christianity.
And then to make people seek him among the philosophers, sceptics, and dogmatists, who disquiet him who inquires of them. Blaise pascal, a 17th century philosopher, felt this modern malaise of being a stranger in the universe in an extremely prescient manner. Pascals statement of his wager argument is couched in terms of the theory of probability and the theory of games, and the exposition is unclear and unnecessarily complicated. Particularly of interest to pascal was a work of desargues on conic sections. This argument, one of the most famous from pascals thoughts, hides a real complexity and deserves an explanation.
One version is a favorite of philosophers, and so it might be called the canonical version of pascals wager. Blaise pascal was born on june 19, 1623, in clermont now clermontferrand in the auvergne region of central france. In this wireless philosophy video, susanna rinard harvard university explains pascals wager, blaise pascals famous argument for belief in god. A critical discussion of blaise pascals the wager essay. Blaise pascal was born on june 19th 1623 in clermont in the auvergne in central france.
Pascals wager edited by paul bartha cambridge university press. Proving god a mathematical interpretation of pascals wager. This argument, one of the most famous from pascals thoughts, hides a real. With the wager, pascal attempted to provide a compelling reason to believe in god based upon happiness and possible outcomes.
Saintebeuves great work on port royal, especially the second and third volumes, and port royal, by charles beard, b. Blaise pascal was a 17th century french philosopher, theologian, and mathematician. Pascals wager is the name given to an argument due to blaise pascal. If the christian god does exist, the agnostic gains. Pascals wager is an argument posed by the mathematician and physicist blaise pascal to deal with gods existence to help explain here is an illustration. Explain whether you consider pascals wager a proof of gods existence or. The project gutenberg ebook of pascals pensees, by blaise. Pensees by blaise pascal, free pdf, ebook global grey. In this outline i try to provide students with the necessary background to make sense of the. Those to whom the life of pascal and the story of port royal are unknown, must be referred to works treating fully of the subject, since it were impossible to deal with them adequately within the limits of a preface. The implications of blaise pascals wager and his relevance for todays faith introduction on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the second ecumenical vatican council, the holy father emeritus, benedict xvi, proclaimed for the whole catholic church the year of faith that started on october 11, 2012 and will conclude on november 24, 20. Pascal argues that a rational person should live as though god exists and seek to believe in god.
Blaise pascal brief biography blaise pascal outline of pascal as a mathematician. Since pascal does not think a sound argument can be given for gods existence, he proposes a persuasive consideration. Pascals wager expresses the conviction that belief in god is reasonable on the ground that there are no rational grounds either for belief or disbelief, so belief is not less reasonable than disbelief. His theory of conic sections and probability theory are well known. The wager blaise pascal blaise pascal 16231662 was a french scientist and mathematician who experienced a religious conversion during the night of november 23rd, 1654 at the age of 31.
Blaise pascal, born june 19, 1623, clermontferrand, francedied august 19, 1662, paris, french mathematician, physicist, religious philosopher, and master of prose. Mar 17, 2016 blaise pascal, a 17th century philosopher, felt this modern malaise of being a stranger in the universe in an extremely prescient manner. Pascal s thoughts are as powerful as they are comprehensive. Mar 23, 2018 but, the wager only works in the way pascal wants it to, if the chances of gods existence is an even split. Pascals wager is usually treated out of context, in a way that distorts the argument and the way that it functions in the larger context of the pensees. Originally intending to publish a book defending christianity, pascal died before he could complete it. Blaise pascals famous wager was that even if the existence of god cannot be determined through reason, a rational person should wager as though god exists, because living life accordingly has everything to gain, and nothing to lose. Explain whether you consider pascals wager a proof of gods existence or not. It seems just possible that in the latter edition, and also in his biographical study pascal. It posits that humans bet with their lives that god either exists or does not. Blaise pascal was a deeply conflicted man who seemed almost constantly to be at war with himself. The concept of pascals wager stems from a portion of this work. While many philosophers argue against the existence of god, some hold on to the view that god does indeed exist and gives people all the reasons to. Pascal s wager and moral tutiorism blaise pascal 1623.
It is pascals wager that is being discussed here and since blaise pascal was a 17th century philosopher and catholic theologian, a reference to the bible is quite pertinent and hence your misconception of it being meaningless is faux. But if there were three lives to gain, you would have to play since you. He passionately argues for the christian faith, using both argumentation and his famous wager. Blaise pascal 16231662 offers a pragmatic reason for believing in god. Pdf on jan 12, 1991, graham oppy and others published on rescher on pascals wager find, read and cite all the research you need on. Pascals wager a good summary of the argument by paul saka. Both men were followers of jean guillebertproponent of a splinter group from catholic teaching known as jansenism. If the chances of god existing are one in ten million, then the idea that it is reasonable to give up so many of lifes greatest joys on such a slim likelihood is hard to sustain. Pascals wager is an argument in philosophy presented by the seventeenthcentury french philosopher, mathematician and physicist, blaise pascal 16231662. A critical discussion of blaise pascals the wager in the gambling world bets are made based on odds, the probability or likelihood that something would happen.
The name is somewhat misleading, for in a single section of his pensees, pascal apparently presents at least three such arguments, each of which might be called a wager it is only the final of these that is traditionally referred to as pascal. Before actually reading pensees, i knew blaise pascal and his pensees only from snippets of quotes such as, the heart has its reason of which reason knows nothing and from pascals wager. In his pensees 165758, pascal posed the following argument to show that belief in the christian religion is rational. Two versions of pascals wager will be earmarked for close examination. Pascals wager is an argument for the existence of god developed by 17th century mathematician and philosopher blaise pascal. Following desargues thinking, the 16yearold pascal produced, as a means of proof, a short treatise on what was called the mystic hexagram, essai pour les coniques essay on conics and sent ithis first serious work of mathematicsto pere mersenne in paris. Connor does a fine job of explaining his work on probability, his. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false. James connor does a good job of giving the reader both sides of this conflict.
Known as the early journal content, this set of works include research articles, news, letters, and other. Pascal, blaise internet encyclopedia of philosophy. Blaise pascal the wager about gods existence pensees. The pensees thoughts is a collection of fragments on theology and philosophy written by 17thcentury philosopher and mathematician blaise pascal. You may copy it, give it away or reuse it under the terms of the project gutenberg license included with this ebook or online at. Rather, blaise pascal intended for it to be understood within a certain context, and for this reason the wager should be examined relative to its contextual bearings. It posits that humans bet with their lives that god either exists or does not pascal argues that a rational person should live as though god exists and seek to believe in god. Pascals religious conversion led him into a life of asceticism and this was in many ways his lifes work. Blaise pascal s famous wager was that even if the existence of god cannot be determined through reason, a rational person should wager as though god exists, because living life accordingly has everything to gain, and nothing to lose. Mar 24, 2017 in this wireless philosophy video, susanna rinard harvard university explains pascal s wager, blaise pascal s famous argument for belief in god. If the christian god does not exist, the agnostic loses little by believing in him and gains correspondingly little by not believing. Goldmann, the famous exegesis of the thought of blaise pascals wager said it is the center of gravity of his philosophy, and acknowledges that the famous argument should be of interest to the libertines.
So far we have discussed a number of arguments for or against the. Full text of pascal s wager see other formats stop early journal content on jstor, free to anyone in the world this article is one of nearly 500,000 scholarly works digitized and made freely available to everyone in the world by jstor. Yearning for knowledge of absolutes and the experience of infinity, pascal understood that human beings are condemned, like tantalus, to never acquire that which they desire. The name is somewhat misleading, for in a single section of his pensees, pascal apparently presents at least three such arguments, each of which might be called a wagerit is only the final of. Course notes blaise pascal, the wager the electric agora. Pascals wager superb analysis of the argument by alan hajek. This is a plausible principle, and one which is employed in some versions of pascals wager. Pascals wager about god internet encyclopedia of philosophy. Gauth rated it liked it jan 08, klam rated it it was amazing nov 07, thanks for telling us about the problem. The following is a creative reformulation of the argument designed to avoid some of the objections which have been or might be raised against the original. What logical flaws andor fallacies if any are committed in making this argument.
It reasons thereupon,and calls it nature, necessity, and can believe nothing else. Orcibal, in blaise pascal, lhomme et loeuvre, section v. In the court of law, cases are decided upon by the weight of evidence presented by the respective parties. Pascal is perhaps most famous for his wager pascal s wager which is not as clear in his language as in this summary. Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy pascals wager first published sat may 2, 1998. One of pascals most famous works was the pensees thoughts, which was published posthumously in 1670. He laid the foundation for the modern theory of probabilities, formulated what came to be known as pascals principle of pressure, and propagated a religious doctrine that. But, the wager only works in the way pascal wants it to, if the chances of gods existence is an even split. The wager at the heart of the philosophy of pascal. The wager the question of whether or not god exists has over the years elicited a heated debate among different philosophers with each one of them giving their views of the subject. The rejection of pascals wager brief refutation of pascal by paul tobin. Since there is an equal risk of gain and of loss, if you had only to gain two lives, instead of one, you might still wager. The pensees literally thoughts is a collection of fragments on theology and philosophy written by 17thcentury philosopher and mathematician blaise pascal.
1130 4 1064 18 1487 835 1021 455 822 287 320 602 307 1048 670 1102 830 1120 66 728 615 1410 511 1099 476 781 99 1230 320 236 810 710 898 69 1156 321