Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T09:06:19.486Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A defence of Pascal's wager

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Geoffrey Brown
Geoffrey Brown
Affiliation:
The University, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Pascal's Wager, and the issues raised by it, have, despite a few notable exceptions, been an object of some neglect in recent Philosophy of Religion. Whether this neglect is from an assumption that the argument requires no comment, or from a feeling that there is something not quite academically respectable about it, I have come to believe that it is undeserved. One reason why the argument is deserving of attention from the theologian is that Pascal has managed to put his finger on just the sort of consideration which, rightly or wrongly, is capable of exercising a powerful influence over the ordinary mind – the sort of problem which, in short, keeps people awake at nights. A reason why it should be of interest to the philosopher is that it possesses that characteristically philosophical quality of appearing obviously invalid in some lights, and in others (rather like the Ontological Argument) manages to slip past every supposed disproof, and annoy us with the suspicion that it may, after all, be valid. These reasons alone are sufficient to justify the philosopher of religion in attempting a careful analysis of Pascal's case in the light of which its cogency can be assessed. In this paper, I shall attempt such an analysis, and shall proceed to argue that, correctly understood and within its proper limitations, Pascal's argument is indeed valid.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , September 1984 , pp. 465 - 479
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 466 note 1 Dalton, Peter C., ‘Pascal's Wager: The Second Argument’ Southern journal of Philosophy XIII, no. 1 (spring 1995), 31–46Google Scholar, and ‘Pascal's Wager: The First Argument’, Philosophical Review, VII, no. 2 (1976), 346–86.

page 466 note 2 Pascal, , Pensées, 418Google Scholar All references to the Pensées are based on the Penguin Classics edition, trans. Krailsheimer, A. J. (Penguin Books, 1966).Google Scholar

page 466 note 3 Id.

page 466 note 4 On this point, see Clement Webb, C. J., Pascal's Philosophy of Religion (Clarendon, Oxford, 1929), ch. v.Google Scholar

page 467 note 1 Steinman, Jean, Pascal (Desclée De Brouwer, 1962), ch. vi.Google Scholar

page 467 note 2 Pensées, p. 418.Google Scholar

page 468 note 1 Id.

page 468 note 2 Swinburne, R. G., The ‘Christian Wager’, Religious Studies IV (1968–1969), 217–228.Google Scholar

page 469 note 1 Plato, , Phaedo 114dGoogle Scholar, trans. Tredennick, Hugh, in Collected Dialogues, ed. Hamilton, and Cairns, (Pantheon, 1961).Google Scholar

page 470 note 1 Lewis, C. S., Miracles (Bles, 1947).Google Scholar

page 470 note 2 James, William, ‘The Will to Believe’, in Tite Will to Believe and other essays… (Longmans Green, 1904).Google Scholar

page 471 note 1 Mill, J. S., A System of Logic.Google Scholar

page 471 note 2 Hume, , An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, ch. x.Google Scholar

page 471 note 3 Pensées, p. 418.

page 471 note 4 James, , op. cit.Google Scholar

page 471 note 5 Flew, Anthony, The Presumption of Atheism (Elek/Pemberton, 1976), ch. vGoogle Scholar. (Similar arguments are also presented in his God and Philosophy, 1966.)

page 472 note 1 Id.

page 472 note 2 Price, H. H. ‘Belief and Will’, PAS, supplementary vol., XXVIII (1954)Google Scholar. (See also Pojman, B. P., ‘Belief and Will’, Rel. Stud. XIV, 1–14.)Google Scholar

page 473 note 1 Id.

page 473 note 2 Pensées, p. 418.

page 474 note 1 Ibid. p. 427.

page 474 note 2 On this, see Turner, M. B., ‘Deciding for God – the Bayesian Support of Pascal's Wager’, in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research XXIX (1968–1969).Google Scholar

page 475 note 1 Flew, , op. cit., ch. 5.Google Scholar

page 475 note 2 Id.

page 476 note 1 Pensées, p. 418.

page 476 note 2 A similar, though distinct, point, has been made by Mellor, D. H. in his article ‘God and Probability’, Rel. Stud. V (1969), 223–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 477 note 1 E.g. Cousin, Victor, Des Pensées de Pascal.Google Scholar

page 477 note 2 On this controversy, see Lacombe, Roger-E., L'Apologétique de Pascal (Presses Universitaires de France 1958).Google Scholar

page 478 note 1 See Laporte, Jean, Le Coeur et La Raison selon Pascal (Éditions Elzévir, Paris, 1950).Google Scholar

page 478 note 2 Penelhum, T., «Pascal's Wager’, Journal of Religion XLIV (1964).Google Scholar

page 479 note 1 Swinburne, , op. cit.Google Scholar

page 479 note 2 John, 4: 16.Google Scholar