Page 2272 - war-and-peace

because he is not conscious of it except as free.
You say: I am not and am not free. But I have lifted my
hand and let it fall. Everyone understands that this illogical
reply is an irrefutable demonstration of freedom.
That reply is the expression of a consciousness that is not
subject to reason.
If the consciousness of freedom were not a separate and
independent source of self-consciousness it would be subject
to reasoning and to experience, but in fact such subjection
does not exist and is inconceivable.
A series of experiments and arguments proves to every
man that he, as an object of observation, is subject to cer-
tain laws, and man submits to them and never resists the
laws of gravity or impermeability once he has become ac-
quainted with them. But the same series of experiments
and arguments proves to him that the complete freedom of
which he is conscious in himself is impossible, and that his
every action depends on his organization, his character, and
the motives acting upon him; yet man never submits to the
deductions of these experiments and arguments. Having
learned from experiment and argument that a stone falls
downwards, a man indubitably believes this and always ex-
pects the law that he has learned to be fulfilled.
But learning just as certainly that his will is subject to
laws, he does not and cannot believe this.
However often experiment and reasoning may show
a man that under the same conditions and with the same
character he will do the same thing as before, yet when un-
der the same conditions and with the same character he

2272 War and Peace