It’s moments like this that make me realize my mental limits. Someday, perhaps, I’ll be able to absorb these complex strings of words with ease—but not yet. Here’s what I’m talking about:
All purposive action of men rests upon and presupposes the constant operation of natural forces. I plan for tomorrow and for next year on the supposition that the revolution of the earth upon its axis and about the sun will continue. If in following up my plan I walk along a street at the precise moment when a chimney is blown down so that it nearly or quite kills me, that is an “accident”; the fall of rocks from a mountain into an empty valley is not called an accident unless there is a person, or a building representing the purpose of a person, near where the rocks fall. It appears then that while the constancy of natural processes is the necessary prerequisite for intelligent, purposive and moral action, that same constancy may sometimes cut across the sequence of purposive actions and hinder the fulfillment of purpose.
—William Temple
Ouch. Free will? Problem of Pain? My brain is hurting.
