PHIL 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Blaise Pascal
Document Summary
He believed it is rational to choose to believe in god treating it as a wager: not capable of being proved by the notions of human reason i(cid:374)stead let"s thi(cid:374)k a(cid:271)out it as a bet. You have two things to lose the true and the good and two things to stake: your reason and your will, your knowledge and your happiness; and your nature has two things to shun, error and misery. The only one that should count is happiness. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. He is assuming that god is the catholic medieval god. He already believes god exists before he starts this argument, he just wants to find a justification for that belief and happiness. (cid:374)e(cid:448)er threate(cid:374)s (cid:449)ith hell: does(cid:374)"t (cid:449)a(cid:374)t to (cid:272)o(cid:373)e to his (cid:271)elief i(cid:374) god out of fear.
