In future, it'd probably be good to expand this entry to mention Pascal's wager (the original form, not the mugging) as perhaps the most iconic "wager" and as having a similar structure, though not being altruistic.
My impression is that these are usually/often more about establishing that you should act as if the proposition is true, rather than that you should conclude the proposition genuinely is true? I could be wrong, though.
Ok, I googled this full term, and it seemed that this page coined the term. That suggests that how to define it is up for grabs. And the definition my comment suggests seems more useful and to better match how I've heard the term "wager" used in EA. So I've changed the first sentence and added more text fleshing out the idea.
But maybe the original definition was more useful for some reason - I'm open to people editing it back or debating it here.
In future, it'd probably be good to expand this entry to mention Pascal's wager (the original form, not the mugging) as perhaps the most iconic "wager" and as having a similar structure, though not being altruistic.
My impression is that these are usually/often more about establishing that you should act as if the proposition is true, rather than that you should conclude the proposition genuinely is true? I could be wrong, though.
Ok, I googled this full term, and it seemed that this page coined the term. That suggests that how to define it is up for grabs. And the definition my comment suggests seems more useful and to better match how I've heard the term "wager" used in EA. So I've changed the first sentence and added more text fleshing out the idea.
But maybe the original definition was more useful for some reason - I'm open to people editing it back or debating it here.