Dec-23| War & Peace - Epilogue 2, Chapter 8
Historical Threads: 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | …
A 2023 thread by u/moonmoosic and u/davidmason007 is worth reading.
In 2021, a thread by u/karakickass discussed Tolstoy’s personal history and rejection of writing in the context of the phrase from this chapter, “thanks to that most powerful engine of ignorance, the diffusion of printed matter”.
Summary, courtesy Albert Einstein: God does not play dice with the universe.
Anti-summary, courtesy Niels Bohr: Al, stop telling God what to do.
Color commentary, courtesy Neal Peart:
You can choose a ready guide
In some celestial voice
If you choose not to decide
You still have made a choice
You can choose from phantom fears
And kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that’s clear
I will choose free will.
Links
Discussion Prompts
- We leave the historians behind and discuss the subject of free will. Are you more interested now that we are leaving the historians behind or is this all the same to you?
Additional Discussion Prompts
- If you look at free will with reason, Tolstoy says that all our actions are subject to rules. But we’re still uncertain about the result of actions which we have performed thousands of times. Will looking at free will with reason help you in your life with being more certain or will you just keep being uncertain about the results?
- Tolstoy seems to be arguing against the theory of evolution at the end of the chapter. Do you think his arguments here make any sense?
- Tolstoy uses god when discussing the subjects in the book. For the non-believers, is this something which limits your acceptance of the arguments or are you able to accept and use his arguments equally well?
Final line of today's chapter:
... …in a fit of zeal smear their plaster all over the windows, the icons, the scaffolding, and the as yet unreinforced walls, and rejoice at how, from their plaster point of view, everything comes out flat and smooth.