All Comments on 'Pascal's Wager'

by greenmountaineer

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  • 9 Comments
twelveoonetwelveoonealmost 13 years ago
A5

w/o comment (I get tired of the disclaimers) and these would be minor judgment calls.

AnonymousAnonymousalmost 13 years ago

Its an excellent poem, although I must confess I fail to understand the significance of the title. Pascal's wager, if I recall correctly infers mathematically that we are compelled to gamble. Philosophically, (and I could be mistaken here) 'Pascal's wager' claims to prove that belief in God is rational: "If God does not exist, one will lose nothing by believing in him, while if he does exist, one will lose everything by not believing." Or something like this.

The way I read this poem - and thats why I feel its an excellent poem - is that the poet is calling Pascal's life itself a wager, kind of. Pascal died very young (almost at 40 or less), and I believe he suffered quite a bit. He also claimed teh existence of vacuum (I loved the Nothing reference in the beginning; its a super allusion to his initial work), though people like Descartes mocked him for his theories on vacuum.

I guess the poet here refers to the bet he had with life itself. I loved it, but if green mountainer has some other explanation, I would love to be educated on this.

AnonymousAnonymousalmost 13 years ago
p.s

it was recommended

UnderYourSpellUnderYourSpellalmost 13 years ago
~

Anons comment helped me understand this although I could already see the merits myself, but I'm afraid the meaning of the last two lines escapes me. Probably not your fault but surely if you're writing for the masses it does help if they are likely to understand the subject

AnonymousAnonymousalmost 13 years ago

I could be wrong, but if I were to hazard a guess, I would say the last two lines are merely implying that you can't actually plan or deal with death. Pascal suffered one hell of a lot before dying so young. One may intellectually rationalise about death being akin to going to back to a womb, as many oriental philosophies argued, but Pascal wouldn't have bet a dime on it. Death can sometimes be gory, unromantic and painful.

At least that's what my limited understanding tells me. Only greenmountaineer can elucidate now. :-)

bogusagainbogusagainalmost 13 years ago
no comment on..

the poem as a poem, great read but I would argue that nothing is worse than Dante's hell. Surely nothing is a fine state and only human conceit sees it as hellish?

simply__mesimply__mealmost 13 years ago
With the comments below

I see the meaning. But too, do not understand the ending unless it is as the anon suggests. it's out of my mental reach and bugging me. gm, explain.

twelveoonetwelveoonealmost 13 years ago
aka Pascal's Gambit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_Wager

greenmountaineergreenmountaineeralmost 13 years agoAuthor
Reply

The last 2 lines, deliberately vague, and line 2 of the last stanza are the key lines. Did the "dulcet voice" belong to Pascal's mother, or was she just playing the violoncello? If not, was the voice just another hallucination? Was the "dulcet voice" fading like the sound of the violoncello? Maybe not. Who knows?

The link provided by 12o1 explains "Pascal's Wager" further anyone is interested.

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