Philosophy 1020 Lecture 8: L8 Pascal's Wager
19 Jan 2018
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October-02-12: an argument for the rationality of religious belief. About the assignment: there are no right/wrong answers, we are being marked on how we present our argument. Laid foundations of infinitesimal calculus: built the first calculating machine, experiments in physics, especially fluid dynamics, religious thinker and writer (jansenist-moral reformist movement under roman catholic nation) "the eternal silence of these infinite spaces terrifies me" Note that the big win and the big loss are immeasurably bigger than the little win and the little loss: It seems the wrong motivation for religious belief. What would god think of people who believe in him because of a bet: pascal, however, pretty clearly understands the wager as a device merely to get people going on the path toward real religious belief. It requires that various strands of the christian "package" all be held together: the wager wouldn"t work at all if christianity were shorn of its eschatology.
