Precognition
Sir: May I take issue with Colin Welch (Books, 15 August) on a point of metaphy- sics?
Suppose, in a dream, I am warned of an impending accident and, thanks to the warning, I avoid it. Precognition, Colin claims, 'is an odd word for advance know- ledge of something which did not happen'; and he goes on to argue that to see the future 'must surely be to see what in a sense already exists or is predestined'.
I would welcome a ruling on this from one of our eminent philosophers — Sir Freddie Ayer, perhaps, or Professor Tod Honderich. Am I, in the terms of the well-worn limerick, not even a bus, but a tram? The value of the case histories in The Unknown Guest lies, for me, in the evi- dence they provide for the proposition that although what we do is largely predeter- mined, it is not predestined. Intuition may enable us, through precognition, to cock a snook at Fate.
Brian Inglis
23 Lambolle Road, London NW3
Previous page
