Mailvox: contradictions… or not

Char gets pensive:


Interesting — the construct “free will” here and in the Tolstoy story above, the opposite or lack of free will. The contrast makes some food for thought. I enjoy your web site and thanks for allowing visitors.

I don’t see that Tolstoy is NECESSARILY anti-free will in the quotidian details of life – shall I have yogurt or cereal for breakfast – so much as he is intent on puncturing the illusion of free will with regards to the individuals who stand at the cusp of great events. True, if one had to pin him down to one camp or the other, I suspect he would likely side with the omniderigents, but that’s largely irrelevant with regards to the matter with which he is concerned. Tolstoy is clearly wrestling with the What, not the How much less the Why.