as though they believed the fairy-tale to be true. Free-will may be another fairy-tale. But this problem has a more sinister aspect, because most of us realise that if there is no such thing as free-will, then the world is only a mechanical ritual. And life, if we meditate upon it, becomes a nightmare.
The answer, in my opinion, is that one can change one's consciousness, one's attitude, the way one looks at things, by an effort of will. One can look at things one way one moment; then a split second later, by an effort of will, one can look at them another; and then back. For instance, if one is prosecuting in a criminal case at quarter sessions, one has to try to anticipate the defence so far as one can. It is quite hopeless trying to plan a cross-examination from scratch after the case has begun, or after the accused has begun to give evidence. There is no time. One has to try beforehand to put oneself into the position of the accused, to see things through his eyes, and to try to work out the possible stories that are open to him to explain away what has happened. One has to try to assess the strength of each story and the weakness, and plan accordingly. And so in an ordinary everyday situation, one uses this human capacity for switching one's sense of perspective from one side to the other, to help solve an ordinary everyday problem. My experience is in the law courts; but no doubt the same technique is employed, or could be employed, in every other walk of life.
Two examples may make clear the need to see things through the eyes of others. The first was a prosecution for being in charge of a motor car, when unfit to drive through drink. In the old days, it was very hard to get a conviction in a case of driving whilst unfit to drive through drink; the most flagrant cases of drunken driving ended in acquittals. To get a conviction when a defendant was only accused of being in charge, when unfit through drink, was doubly hard. Furthermore this case came on for trial just after the breathalyser legislation came into force, with the Road Safety Act 1967; so the charge was…