Pascal's Wager (also known as Pascal's Gambit) is an argument in apologetic philosophy which was devised by the seventeenth-century French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist, Blaise Pascal. It posits that there's more to be gained from wagering on the existence of God than from atheism, and that a rational person should live as though God exists, even though the truth of the matter cannot actually be known.
Pascal formulated the wager within a Christian framework, and it was set out in section 233 of his posthumously published Pensées. (Pensées, meaning thoughts, was the name given to the collection of unpublished notes which, after Pascal's death, were assembled to form an incomplete treatise on Christian apologetics.)
Historically, Pascal's Wager was groundbreaking because it charted new territory in probability theory, marked the first formal use of decision theory, and anticipated future philosophies such as existentialism, pragmatism, and voluntarism.
Read more about Pascal's Wager: The Wager, Context, Explanation, Criticism, Variations
Famous quotes containing the words pascal and/or wager:
“The exterior must be joined to the interior to obtain anything from God, that is to say, we must kneel, pray with the lips, and so on, in order that proud man, who would not submit himself to God, may be now subject to the creature.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“When Methodist preachers come down
A-preaching that drinking is sinful,
I’ll wager the rascals a crown
They always preach best with a skinful.”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730?–1774)