Western Civilization II / Unit 5 WC2 0422 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Spinoza's Materialism and Pascal's Wager
Captions available
The idea
Spinoza, an Amsterdam Jew excommunicated at twenty-four, held nature's laws to be God and a personal God superstition, with no spirit or soul: materialism, near atheism, condemned by every church. Pascal answered doubt with a wager: worship costs nothing if God does not exist.
In practice
Pascal on law: truth this side of the Pyrenees, error beyond.
Where people slip
Opposite conclusions from one science.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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