Pascalian Wagers

Synthese 108 (1):11 - 61 (1996)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

A person who does not have good intellectual reasons for believing in God can, depending on his probabilities and values for consequences of believing, have good practical reasons. Pascalian wagers founded on a variety of possible probability/value profiles are examined from a Bayesian perspective central to which is the idea that states and options are pragmatically reasonable only if they maximize subjective expected value. Attention is paid to problems posed by representations of values by Cantorian infinities. An appendix attends to Robinsonian hyperreals. Another appendix presents for comparison Newcomb's Problem and a problem in some ways like it suggested, I think, by ideas of John Calvin.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,221

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

When Fair Betting Odds Are Not Degrees of Belief.T. Seidenfeld, M. J. Schervish & J. B. Kadane - 1990 - PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1990:517-524.
Pascal's Wagers.Jeff Jordan - 2002 - Midwest Studies in Philosophy 26 (1):213–223.
Pascal Y Los indivisibles.Javier de Lorenzo - 1985 - Theoria 1 (1):87-120.
Threats to Democratic Rationality.Kristin A. Wagers & Bruce Tonn - 2010 - World Futures 66 (8):597-625.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
93 (#168,691)

6 months
9 (#144,107)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

Waging War on Pascal’s Wager.Alan Hájek - 2003 - Philosophical Review 112 (1):27-56.
Pascal’s wager and the origins of decision theory: decision-making by real decision-makers.James Franklin - 2018 - In Paul Bartha & Lawrence Pasternack (eds.), Pascal's Wager. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 27-44.

View all 9 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

The Logic of Decision.Richard C. Jeffrey - 1965 - New York, NY, USA: University of Chicago Press.
Problems of the Self.Bernard Williams - 1973 - Cambridge [Eng.]: Cambridge University Press.
Deciding to believe.Bernard Williams - 1973 - In Problems of the Self. Cambridge University Press. pp. 136--51.
God, freedom, and evil.Alvin Plantinga - 1978 - Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

View all 39 references / Add more references