溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
Might the Very Feeling That I Am Free Be an Illusion?
Is my conviction that my choice is free the proof of true freedom, or the proof of my ignorance of the causes that pushed me?
A stone in flight, if it could think, would believe it was flying of its own free will.
This question forked within early-modern rationalism over the seat of freedom. Descartes saw the human will as nearly infinite freedom, making the power to withhold or affirm judgment the dignity of the human. Spinoza overturned his teacher's view head-on — the world is the necessary unfolding of God, that is, Nature, and free will is merely the illusion of one ignorant of causes. Yet he did not abolish freedom but redefined it: true freedom lies not in escaping necessity but in understanding it and becoming one with it. Leibniz turned again, striving to preserve human spontaneity even within pre-established harmony. Is freedom the denial of necessity or its understanding — Spinoza's stone remains the coolest image ever cast of that question.
In an age where algorithms claim to know my next choice before I do, Spinoza's stone — is the feeling of freedom knowledge or ignorance — rises again over the screen in our palm.
Spinoza holds up an image cruel in its honesty: a stone in flight, could it think, would believe it flew of its own will.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
Spinoza holds up an image cruel in its honesty: a stone in flight, could it think, would believe it flew of its own will. We feel free, he says, because we do not know the causes that pushed us. Yet his conclusion was not despair — the more we understand those causes, the nearer we come, within necessity, to a true freedom. I sense this question shakes the root of regret. If I truly could not have chosen otherwise then, is regret only the shadow of ignorance? I stand before it too, unable to answer easily whether my feeling of freedom is knowledge or illusion.
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