Philosophers have long enjoyed trying to work out what exactly is wrong with fatalism. In the first century BC, Cicero reported a riddle, nicknamed “the Lazy Argument”, which goes as follows. If you are ill, there is no point in calling a doctor, because either you are going to recover or you are not. If you are, then calling a doctor is superfluous, and if you are not, it is bound to be ineffective.

 

via FT