"Рэймонд Смаллиан. Две философские сценки (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

MORTAL: Well, are my acts determined by the laws of nature or aren't
they?
GOD: The word determined here is subtly but powerfully misleading and
has contributed so much to the confusions of the free will versus
determinism controversies. Your acts are certainly in accordance with the
laws of nature, but to say they are determined by the laws of nature creates
a totally misleading psychological image which is that your will could
somehow be in conflict with the laws of nature and that the latter is
somehow more powerful than you, and could "determine" your acts whether you
liked it or not. But it is simply impossible for your will to ever conflict
with natural law. You and natural law are really one and the same.
MORTAL: What do you mean that I cannot conflict with nature? Suppose I
were to become very stubborn, and I determined not to obey the laws of
nature. What could stop me? If I became sufficiently stubborn even you could
not stop me!
GOD: You are absolutely right! I certainly could not stop you. Nothing
could stop you. But there is no need to stop you, because you could not even
start! As Goethe very beautifully expressed it, "In trying to oppose Nature,
we are, in the very process of doing so, acting according to the laws of
nature!" Don't you see that the so-called "laws of nature" are nothing more
than a description of how in fact you and other beings do act? They are
merely a description of how you act, not a prescription of of how you should
act, not a power or force which compels or determines your acts. To be valid
a law of nature must take into account how in fact you do act, or, if you
like, how you choose to act.
MORTAL: So you really claim that I am incapable of determining to act
against natural law?
GOD: It is interesting that you have twice now used the phrase
"determined to act" instead of "chosen to act." This identification is quite
common. Often one uses the statement "I am determined to do this"
synonymously with "I have chosen to do this." This very psychological
identification should reveal that determinism and choice are much closer
than they might appear. Of course, you might well say that the doctrine of
free will says that it is you who are doing the determining, whereas the
doctrine of determinism appears to say that your acts are determined by
something apparently outside you. But the confusion is largely caused by
your bifurcation of reality into the "you" and the "not you." Really now,
just where do you leave off and the rest of the universe begin? Or where
does the rest of the universe leave off and you begin? Once you can see the
so-called "you" and the so-called "nature" as a continuous whole, then you
can never again be bothered by such questions as whether it is you who are
controlling nature or nature who is controlling you. Thus the muddle of free
will versus determinism will vanish. If I may use a crude analogy, imagine
two bodies moving toward each other by virtue of gravitational attraction.
Each body, if sentient, might wonder whether it is he or the other fellow
who is exerting the "force." In a way it is both, in a way it is neither. It
is best to say that it is the configuration of the two which is crucial.
MORTAL: You said a short while ago that our whole discussion was based
on a monstrous fallacy. You still have not told me what this fallacy is.
GOD: Why, the idea that I could possibly have created you without free