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第9章

second epilogue-第9章

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all be conscious of himself as living。 A man is only conscious of

himself as a living being by the fact that he wills; that is; is

conscious of his volition。 But his will… which forms the essence of

his life… man recognizes (and can but recognize) as free。

  If; observing himself; man sees that his will is always directed

by one and the same law (whether he observes the necessity of taking

food; using his brain; or anything else) he cannot recognize this

never…varying direction of his will otherwise than as a limitation

of it。 Were it not free it could not be limited。 A man's will seems to

him to be limited just because he is not conscious of it except as

free。

  You say: I am not and am not free。 But I have lifted my hand and let

it fall。 Everyone understands that this illogical reply is an

irrefutable demonstration of freedom。

  That reply is the expression of a consciousness that is not

subject to reason。

  If the consciousness of freedom were not a separate and

independent source of self…consciousness it would be subject to

reasoning and to experience; but in fact such subjection does not

exist and is inconceivable。

  A series of experiments and arguments proves to every man that he;

as an object of observation; is subject to certain laws; and man

submits to them and never resists the laws of gravity or

impermeability once he has become acquainted with them。 But the same

series of experiments and arguments proves to him that the complete

freedom of which he is conscious in himself is impossible; and that

his every action depends on his organization; his character; and the

motives acting upon him; yet man never submits to the deductions of

these experiments and arguments。 Having learned from experiment and

argument that a stone falls downwards; a man indubitably believes this

and always expects the law that he has learned to be fulfilled。

  But learning just as certainly that his will is subject to laws;

he does not and cannot believe this。

  However often experiment and reasoning may show a man that under the

same conditions and with the same character he will do the same

thing as before; yet when under the same conditions and with the

same character he approaches for the thousandth time the action that

always ends in the same way; he feels as certainly convinced as before

the experiment that he can act as he pleases。 Every man; savage or

sage; however incontestably reason and experiment may prove to him

that it is impossible to imagine two different courses of action in

precisely the same conditions; feels that without this irrational

conception (which constitutes the essence of freedom) he cannot

imagine life。 He feels that however impossible it may be; it is so;

for without this conception of freedom not only would he be unable

to understand life; but he would be unable to live for a single

moment。

  He could not live; because all man's efforts; all his impulses to

life; are only efforts to increase freedom。 Wealth and poverty; fame

and obscurity; power and subordination; strength and weakness;

health and disease; culture and ignorance; work and leisure; repletion

and hunger; virtue and vice; are only greater or lesser degrees of

freedom。

  A man having no freedom cannot be conceived of except as deprived of

life。

  If the conception of freedom appears to reason to be a senseless

contradiction like the possibility of performing two actions at one

and the same instant of time; or of an effect without a cause; that

only proves that consciousness is not subject to reason。

  This unshakable; irrefutable consciousness of freedom;

uncontrolled by experiment or argument; recognized by all thinkers and

felt by everyone without exception; this consciousness without which

no conception of man is possible constitutes the other side of the

question。

  Man is the creation of an all…powerful; all…good; and all…seeing

God。 What is sin; the conception of which arises from the

consciousness of man's freedom? That is a question for theology。

  The actions of men are subject to general immutable laws expressed

in statistics。 What is man's responsibility to society; the conception

of which results from the conception of freedom? That is a question

for jurisprudence。

  Man's actions proceed from his innate character and the motives

acting upon him。 What is conscience and the perception of right and

wrong in actions that follows from the consciousness of freedom?

That is a question for ethics。

  Man in connection with the general life of humanity appears

subject to laws which determine that life。 But the same man apart from

that connection appears to free。 How should the past life of nations

and of humanity be regarded… as the result of the free; or as the

result of the constrained; activity of man? That is a question for

history。

  Only in our self…confident day of the popularization of knowledge…

thanks to that most powerful engine of ignorance; the diffusion of

printed matter… has the question of the freedom of will been put on

a level on which the question itself cannot exist。 In our time the

majority of so…called advanced people… that is; the crowd of

ignoramuses… have taken the work of the naturalists who deal with

one side of the question for a solution of the whole problem。

  They say and write and print that the soul and freedom do not exist;

for the life of man is expressed by muscular movements and muscular

movements are conditioned by the activity of the nerves; the soul

and free will do not exist because at an unknown period of time we

sprang from the apes。 They say this; not at all suspecting that

thousands of years ago that same law of necessity which with such

ardor they are now trying to prove by physiology and comparative

zoology was not merely acknowledged by all the religions and all the

thinkers; but has never been denied。 They do not see that the role

of the natural sciences in this matter is merely to serve as an

instrument for the illumination of one side of it。 For the fact

that; from the point of view of observation; reason and the will are

merely secretions of the brain; and that man following the general law

may have developed from lower animals at some unknown period of

time; only explains from a fresh side the truth admitted thousands

of years ago by all the religious and philosophic theories… that

from the point of view of reason man is subject to the law of

necessity; but it does not advance by a hair's breadth the solution of

the question; which has another; opposite; side; based on the

consciousness of freedom。

  If men descended from the apes at an unknown period of time; that is

as comprehensible as that they were made from a handful of earth at

a certain period of time (in the first case the unknown quantity is

the time; in the second case it is the origin); and the question of

how man's consciousness of freedom is to be reconciled with the law of

necessity to which he is subject cannot be solved by comparative

physiology and zoology; for in a frog; a rabbit; or an ape; we can

observe only the muscular nervous activity; but in man we observe

consciousness as well as the muscular and nervous activity。

  The naturalists and their followers; thinking they can solve this

question; are like plasterers set to plaster one side of the walls

of a church who; availing themselves of the absence of the chief

superintendent of the work; should in an access of zeal plaster over

the windows; icons; woodwork; and still unbuttressed walls; and should

be delighted that from their point of view as plasterers; everything

is now so smooth and regular。

EP2|CH9

  CHAPTER IX



  For the solution of the question of free will or inevitability;

history has this advantage over other branches of knowledge in which

the question is dealt with; that for history this question does not

refer to the essence of man's free will but its manifestation in the

past and under certain conditions。

  In regard to this question; history stands to the other sciences

as experimental science stands to

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