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

will! You acted as if this were a genuine possibility, and wondered why I
did not choose it! It never occurred to you that a sentient being without
free will is no more conceivable than a physical object which exerts no
gravitational attraction. (There is, incidentally, more analogy than you
realize between a physical object exerting gravitational attraction and a
sentient being exerting free will!) Can you honestly even imagine a
conscious being without free will? What on earth could it be like? I think
that one thing in your life that has so misled you is your having been told
that I gave man the gift of free will. As if I first created man, and then
as an afterthought endowed him with the extra property of free will. Maybe
you think I have some sort of "paint brush" with which I daub some creatures
with free will and not others. No, free will is not an "extra"; it is part
and parcel of the very essence of consciousness. A conscious being without
free will is simply a metaphysical absurdity.
MORTAL: Then why did you play along with me all this while discussing
what I thought was a moral problem, when, as you say, my basic confusion was
metaphysical?
GOD: Because I thought it would be good therapy for you to get some of
this moral poison out of your system. Much of your metaphysical confusion
was due to faulty moral notions, and so the latter had to be dealt with
first.
And now we must part--at least until you need me again. I think our
present union will do much to sustain you for a long while. But do remember
what I told you about trees. Of course, you don't have to literally talk to
them if doing so makes you feel silly. But there is so much you can learn
from them, as well as from the rocks and streams and other aspects of
nature. There is nothing like a naturalistic orientation to dispel all these
morbid thoughts of "sin" and "free will" and "moral responsibility." At one
stage of history, such notions were actually useful. I refer to the days
when tyrants had unlimited power and nothing short of fears of hell could
possibly restrain them. But mankind has grown up since then, and this
gruesome way of thinking is no longer necessary.
It might be helpful to you to recall what I once said through the
writings of the great Zen poet Seng-Ts'an:

If you want to get the plain truth,
Be not concerned with right and wrong.
The conflict between right and wrong
Is the sickness of the mind.


Raymond M. Smullyan. An Epistemological Nightmare

From Philosophical Fantasies by Raymond M. Smullyan, to be published by
St. Martins Press, N.Y., in 1982.

Scene 1. Frank is in the office of an eye doctor. The doctor holds up a
book and asks "What color is it?" Frank answers, "Red." The doctor says,
"Aha, just as I thought! Your whole color mechanism has gone out of kilter.
But fortunately your condition is curable, and I will have you in perfect