From this image, philosophy offers a language for coexistence between fate and freedom. The Stoic Epictetus distinguished what is up to us and what is not (Enchiridion, c. AD 125), prefiguring the division between hand and play. Spinoza argued that understanding necessity enlarges our freedom by aligning desire with reality (Ethics, 1677). Later, David Hume framed liberty as acting according to one’s character without external constraint (Enquiry, 1748), a classic compatibilist stance. In effect, Nehru’s metaphor compresses centuries of debate: we do not choose the deal, yet we own our patterns of response. [...]
