James and Pascal

This chapter focuses on William James' relationship to Blaise Pascal. One of the fiercest critics of James' contentions has gotten considerable mileage out of viewing his lecture through the lens provided by the famous Wager argument from Pascal's Pensées. The chapter shows that the view John Hick takes of Pascal, and the attitude he assumes James had to Pascal's Wager, color his entire criticism. It also aims to point out that a more careful study of the Pensées, combined with a wider and more sensitive appreciation of James' attitude toward that work, warrants scholars' drawing conclusions quite the reverse of those which Hick would urge upon them.