Chapter 9 Eight

"Hahaha! If you want, in fact, this wish does not exist at all!" You will interrupt me with a big laugh. "Science has so far dissected the human being, so now we know that desire and the so-called free will are nothing but..." "Wait a minute, gentlemen, that's how I wanted to start my analysis myself. To tell you the truth, I was even scared. I was going to shout just now, and the devil knows what a person's wishes depend on. Thank God, I remembered. Science, but... the words were on the tip of your lips and swallowed back. And then you start talking. You know, seriously, if one day people actually find the formula for all our desires and arbitrary behaviors, which is the basis for them. According to which laws are the formulas produced, how do they develop, what are the goals they pursue under such and such circumstances, etc., etc., that is to say, to find the real mathematical formula-then, to At that time, the person will probably stop wishing at once, and, perhaps, will certainly not wish any more. Who wants to wish this and that according to the logarithmic table? Moreover, he will immediately start from a person. Become a peg in the organ or something like that: for what is a man if he has no will, no will, no will? Isn't that the same as the peg in the organ? What do you think? Let's calculate the probability - will this happen?

"Well..." you decide, "because of our wrong perception of our interests, our wishes are also mostly wrong. So sometimes we are willing to listen to some pure nonsense, and because of our stupidity, we are In this nonsense, you can see the most convenient way to achieve some pre-established interests. Well, when all this is clearly written and calculated on paper (this is very possible. Because, if you believe in a certain Wouldn’t it be hateful and boring if the laws of nature were never understood by man), at that time, of course, there would be no such thing as desire. You know, if desire and reason are completely in collusion Well, then we'll just be talking and not thinking about doing anything, because it's impossible, for example, to be rational while trying to do something meaningless, Wouldn't this be knowingly committing a crime, disregarding reason, and wishing oneself bad... For all wishes and all arguments may indeed be calculated, because one day people will discover the law of our so-called free will, such a Come on, I’m not kidding, it’s really possible to build something similar to a logarithmic table, so we can really express our wishes according to this table. For example, if someone calculates it for me and proves to me , if I make that contemptuous gesture to so-and-so, since I cannot refrain from it, and must do it with some finger, then what liberty am I to have, especially since I am still a scholar and still Did so-and-so graduate from college? You know, in that case, I could pre-calculate my entire life for the next thirty years; We have to accept it. Besides, we have to take the trouble to say to ourselves again and again that at a certain time and under such and such circumstances, nature will not ask for our opinions; we have to accept how nature arranges, not how we fantasize , just accept it, if we really want to do things according to the logarithmic table and schedule, um... even if we just do things according to the retort, then there is no way, then we have to accept the retort! Otherwise, even if you disagree, The retort will still be accepted...

"Yes, sir, but that's what has been a great obstacle to my mind! Please forgive me, gentlemen, for my ramblings; it's because I've lived in the basement for forty years! Permit me Give play to your fantasies. You see: it is indisputable, gentlemen, that reason is a good thing, but reason is nothing more than reason, it only satisfies the rational faculty of man, but desire is the expression of the whole of life, That is, the expression of the whole of human life, including rationality and all scratching the head. Even though our life often appears bad in this expression, it is life after all, not just the square root of the root. Know that, for example, it is very natural , The reason why I want to live is to satisfy the faculties of my whole life, not just to satisfy my rational thinking ability, that is to say, the rational thinking ability is only one-twentieth of my whole life faculties. What does reason know? Reason knows only what it already knows (and probably will never know anything else; that is not comforting enough, but why not tell it so?) , but human nature works as a whole, everything in nature, conscious and unconscious, even if it is doing wrong, but it is alive after all. Gentlemen, I doubt, you look at me with regret; you must turn over and over again To me, it is impossible for an educated and cultured person, in short, a future person, to make things difficult for himself and against himself knowing that it is not good for him. This is mathematics, and it is obvious. I Totally agree, it's really math. But I'm going to repeat to you for the hundredth time that there's only one case, and only one, where a person can intentionally, consciously and even wish to be harmful to himself, wishing that he To do stupid things, even the stupidest things, that is: to have the right to wish that you could do even the stupidest things, and not to be bound by only the smartest things. You know, this stupid thing, you know, this It's what they do as they please, gentlemen, maybe it's really the most beneficial thing in the world for us, especially under certain circumstances. Even under such circumstances, it's not only obvious to us Harmful, and blatantly contrary to the most reasonable conclusions of our reason as to whether it is beneficial to us, but it may also be most beneficial to us-because in any case retains for us the most important and most precious thing, our personality and our individuality. Some say, then, that this is indeed the most precious thing to man; desire, of course, if it will, may also be consistent with reason, especially if it is not abused, but used in moderation ; this is not only beneficial, and sometimes even admirable. But desire, even for the most part, is completely contrary to human reason, even stubbornly contrary to reason, and ... and ... you know, it is not only beneficial, but even sometimes very worthwhile. Do you agree? Let us assume, gentlemen, that man is not stupid. (Indeed, the same cannot be said of man in any case, and even on this basis it is not difficult to see that if heStupid, who else is smart? ) But, even if he is not stupid, he is extremely ungrateful!Rare ungrateful, I even think, the best definition of human beings - this is: ungrateful two-legged animals.But this is not all; this is not yet the main shortcoming of man.His chief fault was a consistent bad character, consistent from the time of the flood in ancient times to the Schleswig-Holstein period of human destiny.Bad character, and hence unreasonableness; for it has long been known that man's unwiseness arises only from his bad character.I ask you to browse through the history of mankind; well, what do you see?Is it majestic?Presumably, albeit spectacularly: the Colossus on Rhodes alone, for example, is worth mentioning!No wonder Mr. Anayevsky said of it that some said it was the work of man; others insisted that it was the work of nature.Colorful?Presumably, though colourful; just look at the uniforms of officers and civilians of all ages and peoples--that alone is worth writing about, and the uniforms of the civil service are enough to bewilder and indistinguishable; Any historian would have a headache about this.Monotonous?Well, maybe, it does seem very monotonous: fighting here, fighting in the past, fighting now, fighting in the past, fighting in the future-you have to admit, this is even too monotonous.In short, everything can be used to describe the whole world history, that is, everything that the most disordered imagination can conceive.There is only one word that can't be used to describe it-that is, reasonable.As soon as you said the first sentence, you were choked back.There is even such a kind of trick that often comes across: You know, there are often such people with good moral character and full of reason in life, such sages and people who love human beings, their goal in life is to be a good human being, and to be as good as possible. To be virtuous and rational, so to speak, to lead by example, to point out the direction for others, to be honest, is to prove to others that a person can indeed be both virtuous and rational in this world.What was the result?You know that many people who have such ambitions, sooner or later, at the end of their lives, have betrayed their purpose and made a big joke, and sometimes the joke is even very indecent.Now I ask you: what good can we expect from a man of such monstrous qualities?You can sprinkle all the wealth in the world all over his body, you can completely submerge him in happiness, just like on the surface of water, you can only see him bubbling on the surface of happiness; you can make him so economically rich that He no longer needs to do anything but sleep, eat treacle biscuits, and try not to interrupt the history of the world—and even then, he, the man, out of his ingratitude, out of sheer spitting, He'll do nasty things too, he'll even risk his treacle biscuits, he'll do utterly harmful nonsense, he'll do utterly ignorant nonsense, and he'll do it for the sole purpose of To all this positive and beneficial rationality there was added some element of his own most pernicious vanity.The only reason why he insisted on retaining his vain fantasies, his extremely vile stupidity, was to prove to himself (as if it was necessary to do so) that after all, human beings are human beings and not piano players. The keys of the harp can be played at will by the laws of nature, but there is a danger that they will not dare to think or do anything except follow the schedule.Not only that, even in such a case, even if he really is a key on a piano, and someone even proves it to him by using natural science and using mathematics, even then, he will not become rational, He insisted on doing the opposite, and he did so only out of ingratitude; he had to be obstinate.If he has no other way, it is impossible to do so—he will think of ways to destroy and create chaos, and find ways to create all kinds of suffering, and he must stick to his ideas to the end!Then curse the whole world, because only human beings can curse (this is the privilege of human beings, and the main point that distinguishes human beings from other animals), you know, he can achieve his purpose by cursing alone, that is, Seriously believe he's a human being, not the keys on a piano!If you say that all these can also be calculated according to the logarithmic table, including chaos, darkness and curses, since it can be calculated in advance, everything can be prevented, and reason will work--then people who encounter such The situation becomes deliberately lunatic, just to be irrational, to be opinionated!I believe this, and I am responsible for it, because, you know, the whole problem of man seems to be that man proves to himself every moment that he is a man and not a peg in an organ!Even if you get beaten for it, you still have to prove it; even if you say he is barbaric or uncivilized, you still have to prove it.And after that, how can you not do evil, how can you not boast, saying that this has not happened yet, and only God knows what this wish depends on for the time being..."

You will surely yell at me (if you will give me the honor of yelling at me) that no one has deprived me of my will here; what everyone is concerned with here is how to make my will consciously compatible with my normal interests and with the laws of nature. Consistent with arithmetic. "Well, gentlemen, when it comes to tables of logarithms and arithmetic, when people only know that two two makes four, what kind of will is there? Even without my will, two two makes four." 4. Is this the so-called own will! "