Pascal's Wager: Pragmatic Arguments and Belief in God

245 Pages·2006·1.34 MB·English

by  Jeff Jordan

PASCAL’S WAGER
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Pascal’s Wager
Pragmatic Arguments and Belief in God
JEFF JORDAN
CLARENDONPRESS·OXFORD
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Preface
A disconnect exists between the arguments that philosophers find
interesting and the arguments actually employed by Christians and
other theists as reasons in support of their religious commitments.
Think of the Ontological argument. Books and articles aplenty are
directed toward it, yet few of those found in a pew would cite the
Ontological argument as a reason for their being a theist. Pragmatic
theistic arguments bridge the gap between the academy and the ‘real
world’, with theoretical issues in epistemology, the ethics of belief,
and decision theory enticing the specialist; while a practical strain of
commonsenseandfamiliaritydrawsthenon-specialist.
InthisbookIinvestigatevarioustheisticpragmaticargumentsandthe
objectionsemployed against them. Special attentionis paid to Pascal’s
Wager,asthemostprominentexampleofatheisticpragmaticargument.
A result of this investigation is a new version of the Wager that I shall
callthe‘Jamesian Wager’,whichsurvivestheobjectionshurledagainst
theistic pragmatic arguments and provides strong support for theistic
belief.
Iamgratefultothecolleaguesandfriendswhosloggedthroughdrafts
of the chapters found within and generously offered comments and
suggestions:MichaelAlmeida, Stephen T. Davis, Alan Ha´jek, Andrew
Marx, TomMorris,JoelPust,KateRogers, WilliamRowe, PaulSaka,
and William Wainwright. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Doug
Stalker for his unflagging encouragement, and sage advice, despite the
glacialpaceofmywriting.IalsoappreciatethesupportofthoseatOUP:
PeterMomtchiloff,JacquelineBaker,EvaNyika,AndrewHawkey;and
HilaryWalford,whoperformedaheroicjobofcopyediting.
Several previous publications of mine have been extensively revised
and form the base upon which the superstructure of the book has
beenraised.‘Pascal’sWagers’,MidwestStudiesinPhilosophy,26(2002),
213–23,formspartofChapter1,while‘PragmaticArguments’,inP.L.
Quinn and C. Taliaferro (eds.), A Companion to Philosophy of Religion
(Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publishers, 1997), 352–59, and ‘Pragmatic
Argumentsand Belief’,American Philosophical Quarterly, 33/4(1996),
409–20, form parts of Chapter 2. Parts of Chapter 3 come from
‘The Many Gods Objection’, in Gambling on God: Essays on Pascal’s