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Questions tagged [pascal]

Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662) was a French mathematician and theologian.

The following are some sources for information about Pascal.

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Does Pascal's Wager contain any logical flaws or fallacies?

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. What logical…
John Lyon
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What fallacy in Pascal's Wager allows replacing God with the devil?

I wanted to know the name of the fallacy or fallacies the Pascal's Wager in the sense that it can be applied to motivate one's belief in many things. A similar argument to the original Wager can be used to say that it is prudent is to believe in the…
Barinder Singh
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Does happiness motivate every action?

Pascal wrote: All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views.…
Jon 'links in bio' Ericson
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Pascal's cœur = Aristotle νόος = Scholastics' intellectus? Pascal's raison = Aristotle's ἐπιστήμη = Scholastics' scientia?

Copleston, S.J., quotes, on p. 164 of A History of Philosophy (vol. 4): Descartes to Leibniz, the following from Pascal's Pensées, S142/L110: Nous connaissons la vérité non seulement par la raison mais encore par le cœur. C'est de cette dernière…
Geremia
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How should one treat probability in taking a decision?

Suppose, I have a machine that accurately gives me the probability of any event occuring. It's obvious what to do when The probabilities are 0.5 and 0.5 (Do nothing) The probabilities are 0 and 1 (Remain an atheist) The probabilities are 1 and 0…
tryingtobeastoic
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How valid is assignment of probabilites when evidence is totally lacking, as in Pascal's Wager?

The SEP article discussing Pascal's Wager states, Premise 1 presupposes that you should have a probability for God’s existence in the first place. However, perhaps you could rationally fail to assign it a probability—your probability that God…
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How to read Pensées by Pascal

I've just started Pascal's Pensées and the first several pages seem like a flood of incoherent statements. For example, 16) Vanity: That something so obvious as the vanity of the world should be so little recognized that people find it odd and…
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Can Pascal's wager be made to work?

There are many objections to the Pascal's wager, as originally stated, see for instance here. Personally, I don't think that the wager can be defended. However, I am wondering if it is possible to formulate - and successfully defend - an argument of…
Jakub Konieczny
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Why did Pascal think — All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone?

This blogpost has the full quote from Pensée, B139, Divertissement Quand je m’y suis mis quelquefois à considérer les diverses agitations des hommes et les périls et les peines où ils s’exposent dans la Cour, dans la guerre, d’où naissent tant de…
user8572
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What's the difference between Pascal's wager and Pascal's mugging?

I was discussing Pascal's mugging with a friend (a mugger comes up to Pascal, and says give me 5 dollars or I'll use my special powers to kill a billion people in another dimension), and there's something about it I didn't understand. In theory the…
ewkochin
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How can you satisfy Pascal's Wager in the eyes of the greatest number of living people?

Leaving aside the obvious objections to Pascal's Wager, imagine a general form of the Wager that could be formulated from the perspective of any religious belief system. Since some religions are more "exclusive" than others, I would imagine that…
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Doesn't fallibilism complexify Pascal's wager further?

We can never know whether we have accumulated all the knowledge in the world or not. This is a general statement. For example, a powerful counterargument against the contingency argument might exist out there that could fatally cripple its…
tryingtobeastoic
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What are the main differences between ancient and modern scepticism?

What would the main differences be between 'ancient' and 'modern' scepticism? Specifically, how could one contrast the writings of Sextus Empiricus vs Pascal & Montaigne? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
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Objection to Pascal's Wager (I don't see this argument being made)

I've always felt the following is the most direct obvious objection to Pascal's wager, yet I see no philosophers making it. I'm curious why. Taken from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_wager "Let us weigh the gain and the loss in…
Ameet Sharma
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The Melisandre's Wager

The Pascal's Wager has been criticized because presupposes that the only possible god is the Christian god. Pascal acknowledges the the existence of his god is doubtful. But even if we suppose that the divine existence is indubitable a new problem…
Martín-Blas Pérez Pinilla
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