Uploaded January 2022 | Updated September 2026, 5 hours ago
Pascal’s Wager raises a difficult question: can it ever be rational to believe in God for practical reasons rather than purely evidential ones?
In this talk, I argue that if “epistemic permissivism” is true, then taking Pascal’s Wager may actually be both possible and rational. Epistemic permissivism is the idea that the same evidence can sometimes rationally support more than one belief.
I explain how this view helps answer two common objections to Pascal’s Wager:
that we cannot choose our beliefs
and that believing for pragmatic reasons is irrational
This talk was given at the Evangelical Philosophical Society in 2018. The paper has since been published in Erkenntnis. You can download it for free here: philpapers.org/rec/JACAPD-9
0:00 Talk
24:41 Q&A
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Check out my website: liz-jackson.com
For more on my research: liz-jackson.com/research
For popular-level interviews, podcasts, and blog posts I’ve done: http://liz-jackson.com/public-philoso...
Follow me on social media:
Twitter: twitter.com/lizjackson111
Instagram: instagram.com/lizjackson111
Facebook: facebook.com/lizjackson111
Pascal’s Wager raises a difficult question: can it ever be rational to believe in God for practical reasons rather than purely evidential ones?
In this talk, I argue that if “epistemic permissivism” is true, then taking Pascal’s Wager may actually be both possible and rational. Epistemic permissivism is the idea that the same evidence can sometimes rationally support more than one belief.
I explain how this view helps answer two common objections to Pascal’s Wager:
that we cannot choose our beliefs
and that believing for pragmatic reasons is irrational
This talk was given at the Evangelical Philosophical Society in 2018. The paper has since been published in Erkenntnis. You can download it for free here: philpapers.org/rec/JACAPD-9
0:00 Talk
24:41 Q&A
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Check out my website: liz-jackson.com
For more on my research: liz-jackson.com/research
For popular-level interviews, podcasts, and blog posts I’ve done: http://liz-jackson.com/public-philoso...
Follow me on social media:
Twitter: twitter.com/lizjackson111
Instagram: instagram.com/lizjackson111
Facebook: facebook.com/lizjackson111
