Jacques the Fatalist and His Master (Denis Diderot ~1796) - Relevant to the interesting free will discussion currently in lisper’s spirituality post. Jacques the valet and his (unnamed) master travel together and tell each other stories along the way to kill the time. The novel is quite humorous and engaging and contains meta humor (e.g. discussions within the novel about the novel itself, discussions between the author and the reader, etc.). Its relevance to the free will question comes from the fact that Jacques frequently discusses his firmly-held belief in determinism with his skeptical master.
I doubt that many people will change their minds regarding the free will question after reading the novel, but even so, it is a clever and entertaining treatment of the subject.
Jacques the Fatalist and His Master (Denis Diderot ~1796) - Relevant to the interesting free will discussion currently in lisper’s spirituality post. Jacques the valet and his (unnamed) master travel together and tell each other stories along the way to kill the time. The novel is quite humorous and engaging and contains meta humor (e.g. discussions within the novel about the novel itself, discussions between the author and the reader, etc.). Its relevance to the free will question comes from the fact that Jacques frequently discusses his firmly-held belief in determinism with his skeptical master.
I doubt that many people will change their minds regarding the free will question after reading the novel, but even so, it is a clever and entertaining treatment of the subject.