Pascal: Reasoning and Belief

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Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0198849117
Total Pages : 426 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (988 download)

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Book Synopsis Pascal: Reasoning and Belief by : Michael Moriarty

Download or read book Pascal: Reasoning and Belief written by Michael Moriarty and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020-02 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a study of Blaise Pascal's defence of Christian belief in the Pensees. Michael Moriarty aims to expound--and in places to criticize--what he argues is a coherent and original apologetic strategy. Setting out the basic philosophical and theological presuppositions of Pascal's project, the present volume draws the distinction between convictions attained by reason and those inspired by God-given faith. It also presents Pascal's view of the contradictions within human nature, between the 'wretchedness' (our inability to live the life of reason, to attain secure and durable happiness) and the 'greatness' (the power of thought, manifested in the very awareness of our wretchedness). His mind-body dualism and his mechanistic conception of non-human animals are discussed. Pascal invokes the biblical story of the Fall and the doctrine of original sin as the only credible explanation of these contradictions. His analysis of human occupations as powered by the twin desire to escape from painful thoughts and to gratify one's vanity is subjected to critical examination, as is his conception of the self and self-love. Pascal argues that just as Christianity propounds the only explanation for the human condition, so it offers the only kind of happiness that would satisfy our deepest longings. He thus reasons that we have an interest in investigating its truth-claims as rooted in the Bible and in history. The closing chapters of this book discuss Pascal's view of Christian morality and the famous 'wager' argument for opting in favour of Christian belief.

Pascal's Wager

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Author :
Publisher : Clarendon Press
ISBN 13 : 0191537578
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (915 download)

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Book Synopsis Pascal's Wager by : Jeff Jordan

Download or read book Pascal's Wager written by Jeff Jordan and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 2006-10-26 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if there is no strong evidence that God exists? Is belief in God when faced with a lack of evidence illegitimate and improper? Evidentialism answers yes. According to Evidentialism, it is impermissible to believe any proposition lacking adequate evidence. And if any thesis enjoys the status of a dogma among philosophers, it is Evidentialism. Presenting a direct challenge to Evidentialism are pragmatic arguments for theism, which are designed to support belief in the absence of adequate evidence. Pascal's Wager is the most prominent theistic pragmatic argument, and issues in epistemology, the ethics of belief, and decision theory, as well as philosophical theology, all intersect at the Wager. Other prominent theistic pragmatic arguments include William James's celebrated essay, 'The Will to Believe'; a posthumously published and largely ignored pragmatic argument authored by J.S. Mill, supporting the propriety of hoping that quasi-theism is true; the eighteenth-century Scottish essayist James Beattie's argument that the consoling benefit of theistic belief is so great that theistic belief is permissible even when one thinks that the existence of God is less likely than not; and an argument championed by the nineteenth-century French philosopher Jules Lachelier, which based its case for theistic belief on the empirical benefits of believing as a theist, even if theism was very probably false. In Pascal's Wager: Pragmatic Arguments and Belief in God, Jeff Jordan explores various theistic pragmatic arguments, and the objections employed against them. Jordan presents a new version of the Wager, what he calls the 'Jamesian Wager', and argues that the Jamesian Wager survives the objections hurled against theistic pragmatic arguments and provides strong support for theistic belief. In addition to arguing for a sound version of the Wager, Jordan also argues that there is a version of Evidentialism compatible with a principled use of pragmatic arguments, and that the Argument from Divine Silence fails. Objections found in Voltaire, Hume, and Nietzsche against the Wager are scrutinized, as are objections issued by Richard Swinburne, Richard Gale, and other contemporary philosophers. The ethics of belief, the many-gods objection, the problem of infinite utilities, and the propriety of a hope based acceptance are also examined.

Taking Pascal's Wager

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Publisher : InterVarsity Press
ISBN 13 : 0830899995
Total Pages : 254 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (38 download)

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Book Synopsis Taking Pascal's Wager by : Michael Rota

Download or read book Taking Pascal's Wager written by Michael Rota and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2016-04-21 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WORLD Magazine’s Best Books of 2016 Short List Christianity Today's 2017 Book of the Year Award of Merit - Apologetics/Evangelism Since we can't know with absolute certainty that God exists, each of us in a sense makes a bet. If we believe in God and are right, the benefits include eternal life. If we are wrong, the downside is limited. On the other hand, we might not believe in God. If we are right, then we will have lived in line with reality. If we are wrong, however, the consequences could be eternally disastrous. This was the challenge posed by the French philosopher Blaise Pascal over three hundred years ago. But Michael Rota contends that Pascal's argument is still compelling today. Since there is much to gain (for ourselves as well as for others) and relatively little to lose, the wise decision is to seek a relationship with God and live a Christian life. Rota considers Pascal's wager and the roles of uncertainty, evidence and faith in making a commitment to God. By engaging with themes such as decision theory, the fine-tuning of the universe, divine hiddenness, the problem of evil, the historicity of the resurrection and the nature of miracles, he probes the many dynamics at work in embracing the Christian faith. In addition, Rota takes a turn not found in many books of philosophy. He looks at the actual effects of such a commitment in three recent, vivid, gripping examples—Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jean Vanier and Immaculée Ilibagiza. Like Pascal, Rota leaves us with a question: What wager will we make?

Pascal's Pensees

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Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1627933646
Total Pages : 230 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (279 download)

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Book Synopsis Pascal's Pensees by : Blaise Pascal

Download or read book Pascal's Pensees written by Blaise Pascal and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-08-20 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection chronicles the fiction and non fiction classics by the greatest writers the world has ever known. The inclusion of both popular as well as overlooked pieces is pivotal to providing a broad and representative collection of classic works.

Pens閑s

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Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0140446451
Total Pages : 716 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis Pens閑s by : Blaise Pascal

Download or read book Pens閑s written by Blaise Pascal and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 1995-12 with total page 716 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blaise Pascal, the precociously brilliant contemporary of Descartes, was a gifted mathematician and physicist, but it is his unfinished apologia for the Christian religion upon which his reputation now rests. The Penseés is a collection of philosohical fragments, notes and essays in which Pascal explores the contradictions of human nature in pscyhological, social, metaphysical and - above all - theological terms. Mankind emerges from Pascal's analysis as a wretched and desolate creature within an impersonal universe, but who can be transformed through faith in God's grace. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Fallen Nature, Fallen Selves

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Publisher : Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN 13 : 0199291039
Total Pages : 449 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (992 download)

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Book Synopsis Fallen Nature, Fallen Selves by : Michael Moriarty

Download or read book Fallen Nature, Fallen Selves written by Michael Moriarty and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 2006-05-25 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Fallen Nature, Fallen Selves is an investigation of psychological and ethical thought in seventeenth-century France, emphasizing both continuities and discontinuities with ancient and medieval thought. Michael Moriarty's examination discusses most of the period's major authors, some well-known, others less so: the abstract and general analyses of philosophers and theologians (Descartes, Jansenius, Malebranche) are juxtaposed with the less systematic and more concrete investigations of writers like Montaigne and La Rochefoucauld, not to mention the theatre of Corneille, Moliere, and Racine. This study will be of interest to all researchers working in early modern French literature and in the history of ideas."--BOOK JACKET.

Making Sense of It All

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Publisher : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780802806529
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis Making Sense of It All by : Thomas V. Morris

Download or read book Making Sense of It All written by Thomas V. Morris and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 1992-10-06 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas V. Morris discusses life, death, religion, the nature of faith and more. This captivating book is ideal both for thoughtful unbelievers who consider Christianity unreasonable, and Christians wanting to know how to share their faith with sceptics. Writing in an engaging, conversational style, Morris takes an intriguing new look at the big questions that keep coming up -- questions about life, death, God, religion, the nature of faith, the formation of an adequate worldview, and the meaning of life. Morris explores these kinds of questions in an earnest yet thoroughly entertaining and easily readable way, relating numerous personal anecdotes, incorporating intriguing material from the films of Woody Allen and the journals of Tolstoy, and using the writings of the seventeenth-century genius Blaise Pascal as a central guide.

Thoughts on Religion, and Other Subjects

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 380 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (334 download)

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Book Synopsis Thoughts on Religion, and Other Subjects by : Blaise Pascal

Download or read book Thoughts on Religion, and Other Subjects written by Blaise Pascal and published by . This book was released on 1825 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Blaise Pascal

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Publisher : Reaktion Books
ISBN 13 : 1780237685
Total Pages : 197 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (82 download)

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Book Synopsis Blaise Pascal by : Mary Ann Caws

Download or read book Blaise Pascal written by Mary Ann Caws and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2017-05-15 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few people have had as many influences on as many different fields as true Renaissance man Blaise Pascal. At once a mathematician, philosopher, theologian, physicist, and engineer, Pascal’s discoveries, experiments, and theories helped usher in a modern world of scientific thought and methodology. In this singular book on this singular genius, distinguished scholar Mary Ann Caws explores the rich contributions of this extraordinary thinker, interweaving his writings and discoveries with an account of his life and career and the wider intellectual world of his time. Caws takes us back to Pascal’s youth, when he was a child prodigy first engaging mathematics through the works of mathematicians such as Father Mersenne. She describes his early scientific experiments and his construction of mechanical calculating machines; she looks at his correspondence with important thinkers such as René Descartes and Pierre de Fermat; she surveys his many inventions, such as the first means of public transportation in Paris; and she considers his later religious exaltations in works such as the “Memorial.” Along the way, Caws examines Pascal’s various modes of writing—whether he is arguing with the strict puritanical modes of church politics, assuming the personality of a naïve provincial trying to understand the Jesuitical approach, offering pithy aphorisms in the Pensées, or meditating on thinking about thinking itself. Altogether, this book lays side by side many aspects of Pascal’s life and work that are seldom found in a single volume: his religious motivations and faith, his scientific passions, and his practical savvy. The result is a comprehensive but easily approachable account of a fascinating and influential figure.

Early Modern French Thought

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Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 9780199261468
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (614 download)

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Book Synopsis Early Modern French Thought by : Michael Moriarty

Download or read book Early Modern French Thought written by Michael Moriarty and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2003 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an examination of three major French thinkers of the seventeenth century, Descartes, Pascal, and Malebranche, of whom the latter two are comparatively little studied in the English-speaking world. It deals with a common attitude of suspicion towards everyday experience, which theysee as dominated and obscured by sensation, imagination, and the presence of the body. This attitude, however, obliges them to develop detailed and sophisticated accounts of the shaping of experience not only by the body but by interpersonal and social relationships, and of the tension between humannature as it is and as we experience it. The treatment of Descartes thus challenges the interpretation that sees him as eliminating the body from 'subjectivity', while that of Pascal and Malebranche shows how their critical attitude towards experience (a fertile source for twentieth-century Frenchthinkers) is linked with their religious doctrines, especially their Augustinian emphasis on Original Sin.

Pascal's Wager

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Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0061989819
Total Pages : 310 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (619 download)

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Book Synopsis Pascal's Wager by : James A. Connor

Download or read book Pascal's Wager written by James A. Connor and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-21 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Pascal’s Wager is a splendid read. Connor [...] a historian who understands religion and science equally [...] keeps us turning the page.” — Michael Gurian, author of The Minds of Boys “James Connor gives a racy account of a remarkable man [...] in a book that is a fascinating read.” — Rev. Dr. John Polkinghorne, author of Quarks Chaos & Christianity “A compelling and readable study of one of the most influential thinkers in religious history.” — Publishers Weekly “Jim Connor is a gifted, talented man of letters...” — Malachy McCourt, author of A Monk Swimming “Bet on reading Connor’s fascinating chronicle and you can’t go wrong!” — Paul Halpern, author of Brave New Universe

Religion Explained

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Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 046500461X
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion Explained by : Pascal Boyer

Download or read book Religion Explained written by Pascal Boyer and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2007-03-21 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many of our questions about religion, says renowned anthropologist Pascal Boyer, are no longer mysteries. We are beginning to know how to answer questions such as "Why do people have religion?" Using findings from anthropology, cognitive science, linguistics, and evolutionary biology, Religion Explained shows how this aspect of human consciousness is increasingly admissible to coherent, naturalistic explanation. This brilliant and controversial book gives readers the first scientific explanation for what religious feeling is really about, what it consists of, and where it comes from.

Thoughts on Religion, and Other Subjects

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 316 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (555 download)

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Book Synopsis Thoughts on Religion, and Other Subjects by : Blaise Pascal

Download or read book Thoughts on Religion, and Other Subjects written by Blaise Pascal and published by . This book was released on 1829 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Human Happiness

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Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 014196412X
Total Pages : 89 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (419 download)

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Book Synopsis Human Happiness by : Blaise Pascal

Download or read book Human Happiness written by Blaise Pascal and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2008-08-07 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Created by the seventeenth-century philosopher and mathematician Pascal, the essays contained in Human Happiness are a curiously optimistic look at whether humans can ever find satisfaction and real joy in life – or whether a belief in God is a wise gamble at best. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

Pascal's Wager

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Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107181437
Total Pages : 347 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Pascal's Wager by : Paul Bartha

Download or read book Pascal's Wager written by Paul Bartha and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-18 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a comprehensive examination of Pascal's Wager, its underlying theology, philosophical influence, and role in contemporary decision theory.

What Happens After Pascal's Wager

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 74 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis What Happens After Pascal's Wager by : Daniel Garber

Download or read book What Happens After Pascal's Wager written by Daniel Garber and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the consequences of French philosopher Blaise Pascal's (1623-62) famous conclusion that believing in a God that did not exist was safer than not believing in one that did. Among the aspects the book ponders are self-deception and deciding to believe, non-cognitivity and contingency, and rationality and history.

Thoughts on Religion and Philosophy

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Author :
Publisher : Literary Licensing, LLC
ISBN 13 : 9781497800892
Total Pages : 424 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis Thoughts on Religion and Philosophy by : Blaise Pascal

Download or read book Thoughts on Religion and Philosophy written by Blaise Pascal and published by Literary Licensing, LLC. This book was released on 2014-03-29 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Is A New Release Of The Original 1922 Edition.