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Despite the fury of Juan, philosophy has survived! Many of you expressed that the handout concerning Nagel, Smart, and Russell was helpful, so I have endeavored to take you on a similar journey through our more recent authors as well. Again I should stress that philosophers write primarily for other philosophers. As a result, philosophy articles are sprinkled with jargon and references to hard issues. Apology: A Defence of Socrates, by Plato. Plato is Socrates' …

…bet? Pascal tells us to act as if we believe, and then eventually we will begin to believe. This seems like strange advice. Not only are we only choosing to believe because of the reward, heaven, rather than for what is commonly thought to be the right reason, because of faith, but now we are even trying to trick ourselves into believing by simply going through the motions! Pascal is a strange Christian in deed.