Free Will 177 



realise that the whole was welded together, and 

 that influences were coming through which pro- 

 duced the effects that we observe. 



Those philosophers, if there are any, who assert 

 that we are wholly chained ^bound and controlled 

 by the circumstances of that part of the Universe 

 of which we are directly aware that we are the 

 slaves of our environment and must act as we are 

 compelled by forces emanating from things on our 

 side of the boundary alone, those philosophers err. 



This kind of determinism is false ; and the 

 reaction against it has led other philosophers to 

 assert that we are lawlessly free, and able to 

 initiate any action without motive or cause, that 

 each individual is a capricious and chaotic entity, 

 not part of a Cosmos at all ! 



It may be doubted whether anyone has clearly 

 and actually maintained either of these theses 

 in all its crudity ; but there are many who 

 vigorously and cheaply deny one or other of them, 

 and in so denying the one conceive that they are 

 maintaining the other. Both the above theses are 

 false ; yet Free Will and Determinism are both 

 true, and in a completely known universe would 

 cease to be contradictories. 



The reconciliation between opposing views lies 

 in realising that the Universe of which we have a 

 kind of knowledge is but a portion or an aspect 

 of the whole. 



We are free, and we are controlled. We are 

 free, in so far as our sensible surroundings and 

 immediate environment are concerned ; that is, we 



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