Pascal’s Wager on Believing in God

Introduction to Philosophy, Writing Intensive
Professor 
Assignment 3
This is your first “traditional” philosophy paper. It’s due in three parts. Remember, this course meets Core Curriculum requirement WCr, which means that the course’s assignments must incorporate revision in response to feedback.
Part 1: mandatory pre-writing exercise, due via Canvas by 10 PM Wednesday February 23.
Read over the list of topics below, and choose one that you think you want to write your paper on. Then take 20 minutes or so to brainstorm some ideas. That’s what you’re going to turn in on Wednesday. This isn’t a draft. It need not be written in complete sentences. It can be a list, it can have parts crossed out, it can have circles and arrows etc. It need not be comprehensible to anyone but you. Your TA will look at it to make sure that you did the assignment, but s/he will not grade it, comment on it, or hold you to it when s/he reads your paper. (If you like to work with pen and paper at this pre-writing stage, rather than on a computer, just upload a photo instead of a document.)
Although part 1 will not be evaluated for quality, completing it counts for 2.5% of your grade.
Part 2: first draft, due via Canvas by 10 PM on Monday March 2.

Write a 5-7 page paper on one of the below topics, following the guidelines given in lecture and the two readings about writing philosophy papers (my handout on Canvas, and the article in the book). Papers must be typed, double-spaced, with 12 point font and 1 inch margins. You do not need to use any outside material, but if for some reason you choose to do so, you must provide the full citation (any format is acceptable; just be consistent). For articles on the syllabus, you only need to give the author, title, and relevant page numbers.
Although this is a draft, you should write it as well as you can. The better the draft, the better feedback your TA can give you. It WILL be evaluated for quality and assigned a letter grade,. It counts towards 5% of your course grade.
TAs will return drafts by Date.
Part 3: final draft, due via Canvas by Date.
Pascal argues that believing in the God of the Western tradition has a higher expected utility than not believing in him/her/them. How does this argument go? One major objection to his reasoning is the ‘many Gods objection’. What is this objection? What do you think is the best response to it? Is that response successful? Why or why not?
Compatibilists claim that once we are clear about what free action is, we will see that free action is compatible with determinism. Explain Stace’s version of compatibilism, the problems with it, and how Frankfurt’s version is supposed to fix those problems. Does it succeed? Why or why not? Might further modifications help? Or should we stick to the original Stace-ian version? I.e.—what is the best version of compatibilism that you can think of? How well does it fare?
What is determinism? Explain why it’s not clear that just denying it and saying nothing further would grant us the ability to act freely. Then consider Chisholm’s more sophisticated form of indeterminism, the ‘theory of agency’ or ‘agent causation’. Is this view plausible? Why or why not? Might a different version of indeterminism be more plausible, and, if so, what might such a view look like?
Explain the problem of evil, and the free will response to it. (Only the free will response.) Obviously, for the free will defense to get off the ground, we have to have free will. Compare Chisholm’s view about freedom of the will with compatibilism à la Stace and Frankfurt (you need not focus on the differences between Stace and Frankfurt unless they are directly relevant to your answer). Might either view have an advantage in giving the free will response to the problem of evil? Why or why not?
5. What is divine command theory? What is the ‘Euthyphro dilemma’ that it faces? What do you think is the best way for the defender of the divine command theory to respond, and why? How well does that response fare? (NOTE: if you want to write on this prompt, you should talk to your TA about getting a few day’s extension on your draft.)