Drowning Child and Determinism
example · philosophical example ·
retold in 4 talks
Žižek poses a thought experiment: if you believe in determinism, you might let a drowning child die because 'it's determined.' He argues that true freedom is acting *as if* you are free, assuming the burden of responsibility even if predetermined.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 4
“you see a small boy or girl drowning there... if you really believe in... full... determination. you would say, fuck it, it's determined.”
“You should act as if you are free... True freedom is: I know I’m predetermined, but I don't know how.”
“you see a child drowning… and you know very well that it will not help your salvation in any way if you help the child or not, so it's only goodness that makes you do it.”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
Its cast and sources
populated by
Frederick II of Prussia2Kirill I of Moscow2Andrew Schally1Ed1Cecilia Alemani1Kwasi Kwarteng1Valentim1Liliana Cavani1
alongside works
Every retelling 4
Žižek poses a thought experiment: if you believe in determinism, you might let a drowning child die because 'it's determined.' He argues that true freedom is acting as if you are free, assuming the burden of responsibility even if predetermined., illustrating freedom as user's illusion,heroic assumption of authority
Žižek uses the example of a child drowning to argue that we act as if free despite biological predetermination, highlighting the paradox of Protestant predestination where we don't know our fate., illustrating Protestant predestination paradox,users' illusion
If you see a child drowning and know that saving it will not affect your predestined salvation either way, you save the child purely out of goodness, no financial logic of merit. Žižek uses this to contrast Lutheran ethics with Catholic soteriology., illustrating predestination,pure goodness without guarantee,Christian atheism
A cognitive scientist who believes free will is an illusion sees a girl drowning in a pool, the logical inference would be 'I have no free will, so why act?' The example shows that even those who theoretically deny free will must act as if they have it., illustrating freedom as user's illusion,acting as if free