I say this is
curious, because the very fact of their agreeing upon every
concrete question which could have been presented ought to have
made it clear that some fallacy was lacking in the discussion as
to the measure of force. The good effect of a scientific spirit is
shown by the fact that this discussion is almost unique in the
history of science during the past two centuries, and that
scientific men themselves were able to see the fallacy involved,
and thus to bring the matter to a conclusion.
If we now turn to the discussion of philosophers, we shall find at
least one yet more striking example of the same kind. The question
of the freedom of the human will has, I believe, raged for
centuries. It cannot yet be said that any conclusion has been
reached. Indeed, I have heard it admitted by men of high
intellectual attainments that the question was insoluble. Now a
curious feature of this dispute is that none of the combatants, at
least on the affirmative side, have made any serious attempt to
define what should be meant by the phrase freedom of the will,
except by using such terms as require definition equally with the
word freedom itself. It can, I conceive, be made quite clear that
the assertion, "The will is free," is one without meaning, until
we analyze more fully the different meanings to be attached to the
word free.
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