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You never know your luck: Lacan reads Pascal

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Abstract

In this paper the question of the object in Freud’s metapsychology is sketched out from an economical point of view, that is in terms of pleasure and displeasure. This allows for a reading of Pascal’s wager that makes clear what interest Lacan had in discussing this one pensée at length in his Seminar on the Object of Psychoanalysis. The central issue in Lacan’s reading concerns the object a as a stake the subject has lost.

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Notes

  1. Duras (1993, p. 140).

  2. Notable exceptions are Gallagher (2001), Cléro (2008) and a special issue of Le Célibataire (2006).

  3. Lacan (2006c).

  4. An unofficial English translation by Cormac Gallagher is available here: http://www.lacaninireland.com/.

  5. Pascal (1966, pp. 149–153).

  6. Lacan (2006b).

  7. Lacan (2006c, pp. 105–183).

  8. Freud (1957, p. 124).

  9. Freud (1953, p. 137; see also 1959, p. 161).

  10. Freud (1953, p. 222).

  11. Pascal (1966, p. 262). The original French includes a word play on chercher (to search) and recherche (to re-search): ‘Nous ne cherchons jamais les choses, mais la recherche des choses.’

  12. Pascal (1654).

  13. If A needs x rounds to win the game and B needs y rounds, then x + y−1 rounds is required to be sure to end up with a winner. The possible ways to reach this result, however, amount to 2r+s−1.

  14. For the ensuing explanation I rely on Thirouin (1991, pp. 130–147).

  15. Pascal (1966, p. 151).

  16. Pascal (1966, p. 152).

  17. Lacan (Lacan 2006a, b, c, p. 137).

  18. See, among many other examples, the case of the female pigeon in Lacan (2006a, p. 77).

  19. Pascal (1966, p. 154, fr. 423).

  20. That is also why Lacan defends Pascal’s choice for the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of grace, instead of the God of the philosophers (Descartes). See Lacan (2006b, p. 135; 2006c, pp. 102f, 147, 150).

  21. Lacan (2006c, p. 117 and p. 126).

  22. Pascal (2009, p. 15).

  23. Lacan (2006c, p. 146).

References

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  1. Erasmus University College, 1070 Brussels, Belgium

    Dominiek Hoens

  2. Dansaertstraat 70, 1000 Brussels, Belgium

    Dominiek Hoens

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Correspondence to Dominiek Hoens.

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Hoens, D. You never know your luck: Lacan reads Pascal. Cont Philos Rev 46, 241–249 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11007-013-9255-z

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