Claude Landeman- Le Pari De Pascal – Pascal’s Wager
 
THE LETTER 21 (Spring 2001) pages 113-120
 
By Way of an Introduction
 
… The text given here of Claude Landeman’s contribution to APPYs annual congress retains the conversational tone in which it was delivered. Claude Landeman spoke on the day via Cormac Gallagher’s (almost!) simultaneous translation and we owe this present text to his efforts on that occasion and to those of the diligent note-takers in the audience. This work is an edited version of the compilation of their combined efforts.
 
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To give you a definition of a ‘wake-up call’, Pascal’s wager is just such a wake-up call. Se reveiller, river, – the function of waking up goes against our most beloved function, our dearest wish, which is to dream, to sleep. You all know that Freud said that the ultimate desire of the dream is the desire to go on sleeping.