Karl White tells me he looked for this old essay of mine but couldn’t find it. His interest, for which I am grateful, inspired me to thoroughly re-think and re-work it. It is now tighter, cleaner, and better organized, and to be found at the top of the Stack.
In her New York Notebook from 1942, Simone Weil presents an argument which she claims “…is greatly preferable to Pascal’s wager.”[i] One of her commentators agrees, finding her argument “obviously both morally and intellectually” superior to Pascal’s.[ii] I will call this argument “Weil’s Wager.” As far as I know, it has yet to be subjected to a close examination.