*Marked as Jean-Louis, others as Vital.
*You teach at a university?
Yes, teaching philosophy
*I've been in Michelin since October and I just got back from South America it 's
weird we never bumped into each other
* I went straight to Serret's house at night. I sometimes eat out, but I prefer to make my own. The social life in foreign countries is so hectic, I need to calm down.
I can leave
*no, I'm just saying I don't want to meet new
people People here are no different from anywhere else
* but I'm glad to meet you here You
're not married yet?
*Nope, what about you?
Neither did I, I mean, I'm in no rush to get married. But in this city, bachelor's life is no fun. What's on tonight's show?
*Nothing, how about having dinner together?
I'm going to the recital of Leonard Gaogan. Come with me, I have a spare ticket
*I don't want to listen to music tonight. . . . (Pauses)
All the Claremonts will go, there are quite a few pretty girls
*your students?
There are a lot of beautiful girls here, but you can't see them very often. . . . I dare say they'll be fascinated by you
* No one has ever been fascinated by me. . . Well, I'll go with you and I'll prove you wrong. (The waiter comes over) I want mineral water,
give me a glass of orange water
* You come here often?
Hardly been here, how about you
* I've never been
here before our paths crossed, it's weird
*On the contrary, our everyday roads never intersect, that is, intersections often occur outside of everyday roads. I used to do a little math in my spare time. It would be interesting to calculate the odds of us meeting in two months.
Can you figure it out?
*This is a question of data and how to count it, assuming data exists. Obviously, without knowing where a person lives or works, I can't calculate the odds of meeting him by chance. Are you interested in mathematics?
Mathematics is increasingly important to philosophers. Linguistics, for example, and even some basic things require mathematics. Pascal's arithmetic triangle came from a bet he made, which makes Pascal seem unusually modern, that mathematician and philosopher are really the same thing.
*Poor Pascal. . . (Protagonist)
Are you surprised?
*It's odd that you mention him too, I'm rereading his work.
Then what?
*I go on disappointed
, I'm interested
* Oh, I don't know why, I feel like I know him well, and I get nothing. His work seems to be empty. I'm a catholic, at least I try to be a catholic, but Pascal's teachings are out of tune with catholicism, and it's because I'm a catholic that his seriousness annoys me, if that's religion, then I should be Atheist. Do you still believe in Marxism?
Of course. For the communists, Pascal's bet is closely related to today's situation. Personally, I doubt that history has any meaning. But I bet it makes sense, and that puts me in the same situation as Pascal. Proposition A, society and politics are meaningless. Proposition B, historically meaningful. I'm not at all sure that proposition B is more likely to be true than proposition A. The truth may be quite the opposite. We can even assume that proposition B has a 10% chance of being correct and proposition A is 80%, however, I have no choice but to choose B because I can only continue to live if I choose to believe that history is meaningful. If I bet that proposition A is true, and that proposition B is in fact true (albeit very unlikely), then I have to give up my life. So I can only choose B, so that my life and behavior can make sense. I have an 80% chance of being wrong, but that's okay
*From a mathematical point of view, potential gains are divided by probability. For example, your B proposition, although the possibility is small, the possible benefits are infinite. For you, this gain is the meaning of life, and for Pascal it is eternal salvation.
I don't know if it was Gorky, Lenin or Mayakovsky, talking about the Russian Revolution, saying that the circumstances at the time forced them to choose one out of ten, because choosing that one had a greater chance of success than choosing the other.
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