Robert Silvers, editor of the New York Review of Books, once asked Isaiah Berlin who his ideal dinner guest would be. Without hesitation Berlin exclaimed, ‘William James!’ … James’s very soul rebelled against the notion that we are little more than robots, fixed in a groove that determines our behaviour and actions to the nth degree, and rejected it with typical and endearing insouciance: ‘My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will.’
Wednesday, July 08, 2020
The ideal guest …
… John Banville - The Pragmatist’s Progress | Literary Review | Issue 488. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
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