Pascal’s Wager (trans. Marcin Iwanicki & Anna Maria Karczewska)

  • Alan Hájek College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University
  • Marcin Iwanicki Department of the History of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3904-0291
  • Anna Maria Karczewska Departament of Logic at the Faculty of Philosophy of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5269-8891
Keywords: Pascal’s wager; objections to Pascal’s Wager; validation of the argument; influence of Pascal’s wager

Abstract

Original: "Pascal's Wager", in: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (Summer 2018 Edition), edited by Edward N. Zalta, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pascal-wager/. Translation with permission of the author.

The Author examines the classical reasoning called “Pascal’s wager” in the framework of decision theory. He distinguishes in Pascal’s original text three separate arguments: (i) the argument from superdominance, (ii) the argument from expectation, and (iii) the argument from generalized expectations. The paper addresses the third argument, discusses objections raised against it and finally investigates the true meaning of its conclusion.

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Published
2019-04-01
Section
Translations