Pascal's wager
E144287
Pascal's wager is a philosophical argument by Blaise Pascal that posits it is rational to live as if God exists, because the potential gains of belief outweigh the potential losses.
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Pascal's wager canonical | 3 |
| Pascal's Wager | 1 |
| Pascalian wager | 1 |
| the Wager | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1261914 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Pascal's wager Context triple: [Blaise Pascal, notableIdea, Pascal's wager]
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A.
Theodicy
Theodicy is a philosophical and theological work by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz that attempts to reconcile the existence of evil with an all-powerful, all-good God by arguing that we live in the best of all possible worlds.
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B.
The Case for God
The Case for God is a 2009 book by religious historian Karen Armstrong that explores the history of religious thought and argues for a more nuanced, experiential understanding of God beyond rigid dogma and atheistic critiques.
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C.
On God
"On God" is a gospel-influenced hip-hop track by Kanye West from his 2019 album *Jesus Is King*, featuring themes of faith, gratitude, and divine protection.
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D.
Port-Royal Logic
Port-Royal Logic is a 17th-century treatise on logic and philosophy, rooted in Cartesian thought and influential in the development of modern logic and epistemology.
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E.
The Freedom of the Will
The Freedom of the Will is an influential 18th-century theological and philosophical treatise by Jonathan Edwards that rigorously defends a compatibilist view of human freedom and divine sovereignty.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Pascal's wager Target entity description: Pascal's wager is a philosophical argument by Blaise Pascal that posits it is rational to live as if God exists, because the potential gains of belief outweigh the potential losses.
-
A.
Theodicy
Theodicy is a philosophical and theological work by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz that attempts to reconcile the existence of evil with an all-powerful, all-good God by arguing that we live in the best of all possible worlds.
-
B.
The Case for God
The Case for God is a 2009 book by religious historian Karen Armstrong that explores the history of religious thought and argues for a more nuanced, experiential understanding of God beyond rigid dogma and atheistic critiques.
-
C.
On God
"On God" is a gospel-influenced hip-hop track by Kanye West from his 2019 album *Jesus Is King*, featuring themes of faith, gratitude, and divine protection.
-
D.
Port-Royal Logic
Port-Royal Logic is a 17th-century treatise on logic and philosophy, rooted in Cartesian thought and influential in the development of modern logic and epistemology.
-
E.
The Freedom of the Will
The Freedom of the Will is an influential 18th-century theological and philosophical treatise by Jonathan Edwards that rigorously defends a compatibilist view of human freedom and divine sovereignty.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
argument from decision theory
ⓘ
philosophical argument ⓘ pragmatic argument ⓘ |
| addressesQuestion | whether it is rational to believe in God ⓘ |
| assumes |
belief in God may lead to eternal happiness if God exists
ⓘ
non-belief may lead to loss of eternal happiness if God exists ⓘ the choice between believing in God and not believing in God ⓘ |
| basedOn |
decision theory
ⓘ
expected value reasoning ⓘ |
| centralClaim |
even if the probability of God's existence is small, belief can be rational
ⓘ
the potential gains of believing in God outweigh the potential losses ⓘ |
| concludes | a rational agent should choose to believe in God ⓘ |
| criticizedBy |
J. L. Mackie
ⓘ
Voltaire ⓘ William James ⓘ |
| criticizedFor |
ignoring evidential justification for belief
ⓘ
oversimplifying possible religious options ⓘ the many-gods objection ⓘ treating belief as a mere pragmatic choice ⓘ |
| field |
decision theory
ⓘ
epistemology ⓘ philosophy of religion ⓘ |
| formulatedBy | Blaise Pascal ⓘ |
| formulatedInCentury | 17th century ⓘ |
| formulatedInLanguage | French ⓘ |
| formulatedInWork | Pensées ⓘ |
| hasAlternativeName |
Pascal's wager
ⓘ
surface form:
Pascalian wager
Pascal's wager ⓘ
surface form:
the Wager
|
| hasAuthor | Blaise Pascal ⓘ |
| hasComponent |
comparison of finite and infinite payoffs
ⓘ
matrix of possible outcomes of belief and non-belief ⓘ |
| hasInfluenceOn |
analytic philosophy treatments of belief and decision
ⓘ
discussions of rational faith ⓘ modern philosophy of religion ⓘ |
| hasInterpretation |
as a prudential argument rather than an evidential one
ⓘ
as an argument for adopting religious practices ⓘ |
| hasNameOrigin | Blaise Pascal ⓘ |
| historicalContext | Catholic apologetics in 17th-century France ⓘ |
| influenced |
The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy
ⓘ
surface form:
William James's "The Will to Believe"
pragmatic arguments for religious belief ⓘ |
| proposes | it is rational to live as if God exists ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
decision under uncertainty
ⓘ
expected utility theory (with John von Neumann) ⓘ
surface form:
expected utility theory
pragmatic justification of belief ⓘ religious apologetics ⓘ |
| usesConcept |
cost–benefit analysis
ⓘ
infinite utility ⓘ probability ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Pascal's wager Description of subject: Pascal's wager is a philosophical argument by Blaise Pascal that posits it is rational to live as if God exists, because the potential gains of belief outweigh the potential losses.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Pascal's Wager
this entity surface form:
the Wager
this entity surface form:
Pascalian wager