THE PROBLEM 



tling the part played by heredity and en- 

 vironment, Is It possible that In these dis- 

 cussions another and equally Important 

 element In the problem has sometimes been 

 overlooked — a younger sister of destiny 

 and the fairest of them all, whose control 

 over human conduct Is not less real and 

 indeed of greater Import practically in 

 personal education and social culture? 

 May Freedom be admitted to our pan- 

 theon of Nature? 



The conflict between the feeling of free- 

 dom and the belief that we are Inexorably 

 ruled by unescapable necessity Is probably 

 as old as human thinking. In the earliest 

 times of which we have tradition man, so 

 far as he thought about the matter at all, 

 seems to have felt the helplessness of his 

 position as the plaything of external 

 forces. Accordingly he pictured himself 

 as the victim of the caprice of the gods. 

 Naturally he tried to placate the fetishes, 

 demons, and fates who peopled his world 

 and ruled his destinies. 



Plato broke away from this naive 

 mythology, In part, and developed an ex- 

 plicit doctrine of freedom of choice. From 

 his time till now the conflict of the schools 

 has continued and to-day the fatalists are 



[13] 



