A Dialogue On Free Will
posted Jan 8, 2008
In memory of Merab Mamardashvili
What do you think, says DJ Spinoza,
am I free?
You are free
if you think you are free,
says God.
Do you think I am free to think so?
says
DJ Spinoza.
Are you trying to do an infinite regress?
says
God.
No, I mean it,
says
DJ Spinoza.
You are free to think so
and you are free when you think so,
says
God.
And what happens when I am not thinking I am free?
says
DJ Spinoza.
Then you aren’t,
says
God.
What do you want me to do, says DJ Spinoza,
walk around, going “I’m free, I’m free, I’m free?” I
can’t think anything else?
You can, says God.
It’s just that your other thoughts have to be built on it.
How do you build a thought on a thought?
says
DJ Spinoza.
In the same way as the sum of angles in a triangle being 180 degrees
follows from the idea of triangle,
says
God.
That’s beautiful, says DJ Spinoza.
But is beauty an indication of truth?
© 2008 Eugene Ostashevsky