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HoP 485 Liz Jackson on Pascal's Wager

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HoP 485 Liz Jackson on Pascal's Wager

History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

Jan 25
History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

Jan 25
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

An interview on contemporary approaches to Pascal's Wager: where decision theory meets philosophy of religion.

Highlights

This podcast explores Pascal's Wager through the lens of modern decision theory and philosophy of religion, examining its logical structure, objections, and surprising interdisciplinary relevance.
00:13
Pascal's Wager is a decision-theoretic argument based on cost-benefit analysis.
05:19
Pascal's Wager is philosophically fruitful
13:08
Probabilities still matter intuitively despite infinite utilities.
20:51
Faith involves a positive attitude toward its object.
33:44
The wager works even with weak traditional proofs due to infinite reward

Chapters

What is Pascal's Wager? A decision-theoretic gamble for God.
00:00
Why does this 17th-century argument still matter across so many fields?
05:19
The 'many gods' problem: How do we choose when every religion offers infinite reward?
10:32
Can you really choose to believe? Faith, doubt, and the problem of self-interest.
17:56
Is the wager selfish? And how it can work alongside traditional proofs for God.
28:34

Transcript

Peter Adamson: I'm Peter Adamson, and you're listening to the History of Philosophy podcast, brought to you with the support of the Philosophy Department at King's College London and the LMU in Munich, online at historyofphilosophy.net. Today's episode wil...