them.”
“I’m not sure I can see the difference.”
“God is not a puppeteer who pulls all the strings, controlling everything that happens. A real puppet master controls the puppets from outside and is therefore the ‘outer cause’ of the puppet’s movements. But that is not the way God controls the world. God controls the world through natural laws. So God—or nature—is the ‘inner cause’ of everything that happens. This means that everything in the material world happens through necessity. Spinoza had a determinist view of the material, or natural, world.”
“I think you said something like that before.”
“You’re probably thinking of the Stoics. They also claimed that everything happens out of necessity. That was why it was important to meet every situation with ‘stoicism.’ Man should not get carried away by his feelings. Briefly, that was also Spinoza’s ethics.”
“I see what you mean, but I still don’t like the idea that I don’t decide for myself.”
“Okay, let’s go back in time to the Stone Age boy who lived thirty thousand years ago. When he grew up, he cast spears after wild animals, loved a woman who became the mother of his children, and quite certainly worshipped the tribal gods. Do you really think he decided all that for himself?”
“I don’t know.”
“Or think of a lion in Africa. Do you think it makes up its mind to be a beast of prey? Is that why it attacks a limping antelope? Could it instead have made up its mind to be a vegetarian?”
“No, a lion obeys its nature.”
“You mean, the laws of nature. So do you, Sophie, because you are also part of nature. You could of course protest, with the support of Descartes, that a lion is an animal and not a free human being with free mental faculties. But think of a newborn baby that screams and yells. If it doesn’t get milk it sucks its thumb. Does that baby have a free will?”
“I guess not.”
“When does the child get its free will, then? At the age of two, she runs around and points at everything in sight. At the age of three she nags her mother, and at the age of four she suddenly gets afraid of the dark. Where’s the freedom, Sophie?”
“I don’t know.”
“When she is fifteen, she sits in front of a mirror experimenting with makeup. Is this the moment when she makes her own personal decisions and does what she likes?”
“I see what you’re getting at.”
“She is Sophie Amundsen, certainly. But she also lives according to the laws of nature. The point is that she doesn’t realize it because there are so many complex reasons for everything she does.”
“I don’t think I want to hear any more.”
“But you must just answer a last question. Two equally old trees are growing in a large garden. One of the trees grows in a sunny spot and has plenty of good soil and water. The other tree grows in poor soil in a dark spot. Which of the trees do you think is bigger? And which of them bears more fruit?”
“Obviously the tree with the best conditions for growing.”
“According to Spinoza, this tree is free. It has its full freedom to develop its inherent abilities. But if it is an apple tree it will not have the ability to bear pears or plums. The same applies to us humans. We can be hindered in our development and our personal growth by political conditions, for instance. Outer circumstances can constrain us. Only when we are free to develop our innate abilities can we live as free beings. But we are just as much determined by inner potential and outer opportunities as the Stone Age boy on the Rhine, the lion in Africa, or the apple tree in the garden.”
“Okay, I give in, almost.”
“Spinoza emphasizes that there is only one being which is totally and utterly ‘its own cause’ and can act with complete freedom. Only God or nature is the expression of such a free and ‘nonaccidental’ process. Man can strive for freedom in order to live without outer constraint, but he will never achieve ‘free will.’ We do not control everything that happens in our body—which is a mode of the attribute of extension. Neither do we ‘choose’ our thinking. Man therefore does not have a ‘free soul’; it is more or less imprisoned in a mechanical body.”
“That is rather hard to understand.”
“Spinoza said that it was our passions—such as ambition and lust—which prevent us from achieving true happiness and harmony, but that if we recognize that everything happens from necessity, we can achieve an intuitive understanding of nature as a whole. We can come to realize with crystal clarity that everything is related, even that everything is One. The goal is to comprehend everything that exists in an all-embracing perception. Only then will we achieve true happiness and contentment. This was what Spinoza called seeing everything ‘sub specie aeternitatis.’ “
“Which means what?”
“To see everything from the perspective of eternity. Wasn’t that where we started?”
“It’ll have to be where we end, too. I must get going.”
Alberto got up and fetched a large fruit dish from the book shelves. He set it on the coffee table.
“Won’t you at least have a piece of fruit before you go?”
Sophie helped herself to a banana. Alberto took a green apple.
She broke off the top of the banana and began to peel it.
“There’s something written here,” she said suddenly.
“Where?”
“Here—inside the banana peel. It looks as if it was written with an ink brush.”
Sophie leaned over and showed Alberto the banana. He read aloud:
Here I am again, Hilde. I’m everywhere. Happy birthday!
“Very funny,” said Sophie.
“He gets more crafty all the time.”
“But it’s impossible ... isn’t it? Do you know if they grow bananas in Lebanon?”
Alberto shook his head.
“I’m certainly not going to eat that.”
“Leave it then. Someone who writes birthday greetings to his daughter on the inside of an unpeeled banana must be mentally disturbed. But he must also be quite ingenious.”
“Yes, both.”
“So shall we establish here and now that Hilde has an ingenious father? In other words, he’s not so stupid.”
“That’s what I’ve been telling you. And it could just as well be him that made you call me Hilde last time I came here. Maybe he’s the one putting all the words in our mouths.”
“Nothing can be ruled out. But we should doubt everything.”
“For all we know, our entire life could be a dream.”
“But let’s not jump to conclusions. There could be a simpler explanation.”
“Well whatever, I have to hurry home. My mom is waiting for me.”
Alberto saw her to the door. As she left, he said:
“We’ll meet again, dear Hilde.”
Then the door closed behind her.
LOCKE
… as hare and empty as a blackboard before the teacher arrives…
Sophie arrived home at eight-thirty. That was one and a half hours after the agreement—which was not really an agreement. She had simply skipped dinner and left a message for her mother that she would be back not later than seven.
“This has got to stop, Sophie. I had to call information and ask if they had any record of anyone named Alberto in the Old Town. They laughed at me.”
