216 THE ANATOMY OF SCIENCE | 



any isolated system is completely determined ] 



by its past. Among all these sciences we know 



no single fact which contradicts this rule. , 



Nevertheless, as Johnson said to Boswell, \ 



"Sir, we know the will is free and there's an end ] 



on't." Indeed, a man may spend an evening i 

 expounding the theory that the will itself is the 



slave of purposeless laws of mechanics, but as i 

 he rises from bed the next morning, after a 



heroic effort of will, he cries, "and yet it is free." j 



It is a paradox which comes almost daily to our j 



attention, and never more than at the present ] 



time when the doctrine of determinism is very \ 



widely taught, and yet we have an uncommonly i 



keen sense of individual responsibility, which is i 



one of the main ideas underlying our whole ; 



social structure. i 



If I have at all succeeded in my attempt to ■ 



show you science in perspective, and to illus- ! 



trate how far we still are from any ultimates, i 



many of you will already have guessed the mode i 



of escape that I propose from this dilemma of | 



freedom and determinism. I agree entirely with '■ 

 Johnson. There is no basic fact of any of the 



exact sciences which is so abundantly proved by j 



the evidence of our observations as this freedom J 

 of the will. Presumably it would never have 



