Possession

I will do such things—

What they are yet I know not, but they shall be

The terrors of the Earth!

—Shakespeare, King Lear 2.4.321–23

Do I possess free will to do

Unknown things, which shall be by their

Doing known? Might philosophers

Some day obtain their magic stone?

A dog may have a kennel

But never own a home.

So, no, you don’t possess free will.

. . . Perhaps it possesses you?

According to Leszek Kołakowski, Bertrand Russell quipped that Lear’s words [epigraph above] summed up the philosophy of Nietzsche—who was to be the prophet of the coming era.

Sunday, September 6, 2026