Choice: Philosophy Forums

Philosophy Forums » General Philosophy » Choice » Choice

Choice

Page: 1 2 3

Choice

Wosret
Tetsugaku no mongaikan

Usergroup: Sponsors
Joined: Mar 29, 2007
Location: Nova Scotia Canada

Total Topics: 15
Total Posts: 3134

Posted 10/20/09 - 01:55 PM:	#11
There is no choice. As long as given a set number of options, the choices I would make were subject to prediction based on the past iteration of similar events, then I had no choice in the matter. If my decision processes are predictable, then they must be determined. The only real intellectual process I see involved is in weighing values.
"Grant me the power to Revolutionize the World" - Tenjou Utena. "I am Horo the Wise." - Horo the Wise.

MasterSean2k
Aspirant

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Oct 17, 2009
Location: DC

Total Topics: 1
Total Posts: 25

Posted 10/20/09 - 02:45 PM:	#12
NothingtoSay wrote: What are the mechanics of choice? What's required for choice? Apparently, I have a lot of thoughts regarding this, and one of the things I keep thinking about is how choice must include a choosing thing, an aim, and choices. What are your thoughts on 'choice'? If by "mechanics" you mean "mechanisms", we could say that choice is possible due to the human faculties of understanding and reason. First we observe a situation, which provides to us the context for choice as well as the problem (a conflict between our interests and reality; I do not have X but wish to have it, etc.). Then we employ reason (making experiential judgements)to identify the options available and select the "best" of the options. Choices themselves may be rational (the best means to achieve a given end), aesthetic (preference), or arbitrary. For example: I am hungry. I have available to me sandwich materials and a chocolate bar. I can rationalize that the chocolate bar provides immediate sustenance, which is best if I am in a hurry; or, the sandwich is more filling, which is best if my hunger is substantial. Now I am at the store and I wish to purchase a shirt. I find two shirts of the same material, quality, and price, but one shirt is red and the other blue. My selection is based either on preference for red or blue; or, I may simply find the wish to purchase a shirt more important than the shirts themselves and choose one arbitrarily (by flipping a coin, for instance).
~MS2k

swamy
Student

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Oct 19, 2009

Total Topics: 9
Total Posts: 61

Posted 10/20/09 - 08:36 PM:	#13
Choice is a decision from alternatives. Considerations for decisions making depends upon the problem area that is dealt, individual preferences etc.

NothingtoSay
Assistant Professor

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Apr 11, 2009

Total Topics: 6
Total Posts: 341

Posted 10/21/09 - 11:19 AM:	#14
Wosret wrote: There is no choice. As long as given a set number of options, the choices I would make were subject to prediction based on the past iteration of similar events, then I had no choice in the matter. If my decision processes are predictable, then they must be determined. The only real intellectual process I see involved is in weighing values. I think my friend says something along those lines too. This cause-and-effect thought my friend has really confused me. But unlike him (he just left the task to me and didn't help), would you go further and try to help me figure out a scenario for choice? I guess I'd say, so far, that a choosing thing would be necessary. You?

onisani
angry panda

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Jul 06, 2009

Total Topics: 4
Total Posts: 174

Posted 10/21/09 - 01:20 PM:	#15
reincarnated wrote: Either one's choice is (a) random (cognitive equivalent of the flip of a coin) or it is (b) determined by one's feelings/preferences/emotions/wants/desires/needs etc etc. I think choices are neither random nor determined. If they were random, we'd walk into walls all the time. If they were determined by emotions or anything else, they would not be choices, but simple caused events. Choices don't happen to us. We, these things called humans, make choices. Maybe we are exceptions to universal causality?

mway
Professor

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Apr 07, 2009

Total Topics: 14
Total Posts: 586

Posted 10/21/09 - 04:29 PM:	#16
onisani wrote: I think choices are neither random nor determined. If they were random, we'd walk into walls all the time. If they were determined by emotions or anything else, they would not be choices, but simple caused events. Choices don't happen to us. We, these things called humans, make choices. Maybe we are exceptions to universal causality? Why can't all of our illusionary "choices" be simple caused events? Also, can you even come up with an idea of a universal state outside of random or determined?
Lame is to Wav, as the Brain is to Reality.

Wosret
Tetsugaku no mongaikan

Usergroup: Sponsors
Joined: Mar 29, 2007
Location: Nova Scotia Canada

Total Topics: 15
Total Posts: 3134

Posted 10/21/09 - 05:49 PM:	#17
NothingtoSay wrote: I think my friend says something along those lines too. This cause-and-effect thought my friend has really confused me. But unlike him (he just left the task to me and didn't help), would you go further and try to help me figure out a scenario for choice? I guess I'd say, so far, that a choosing thing would be necessary. You? I don't quite grasp what it is that you're asking me. Perhaps you could reword it for me? Thanks.
"Grant me the power to Revolutionize the World" - Tenjou Utena. "I am Horo the Wise." - Horo the Wise.

onisani
angry panda

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Jul 06, 2009

Total Topics: 4
Total Posts: 174

Posted 10/26/09 - 01:58 PM:	#18
NothingtoSay wrote: What are the mechanics of choice? What's required for choice? Apparently, I have a lot of thoughts regarding this, and one of the things I keep thinking about is how choice must include a choosing thing, an aim, and choices. What are your thoughts on 'choice'? I think the most crucial element in a discussion of choice is the "choosing thing" you mentioned. As choosing things, we have this amazing capacity to choose what goes completely against all rational weighing up of options, against our emotions and against everything we believe. You could never predict some of my choices, even if you had complete knowledge of my past and present situation. Yet our choices are not random. Random means "Having no definite aim or purpose; not sent or guided in a particular direction; made, done, occurring, etc., without method or conscious choice; haphazard" (wiki). A choice without conscious choice? Maybe we can't describe choice by analogy because only choosing things like us make choices.

Desidude666
Assistant Professor

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Jun 17, 2007
Location: Singapore

Total Topics: 2
Total Posts: 457

Posted 10/26/09 - 11:26 PM:	#19
Choice is a mechanism that is biological in nature. It's our cognitive decision and it's primarily a initiative process. You may term a choice impulsive, or instinctive, or calculated. As such it is the by-product of a thought and might be defined a priori to an action. It's the mechanism that may give life to an action, that if results in a reaction defines phenomenal reality.
What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven. - Ludwig van Beethoven

hanuma
banned

Usergroup: Members
Joined: Sep 22, 2009

Total Topics: 3
Total Posts: 311

Posted 10/27/09 - 12:54 PM:	#20
Wosret wrote: There is no choice. As long as given a set number of options, the choices I would make were subject to prediction based on the past iteration of similar events, then I had no choice in the matter. If my decision processes are predictable, then they must be determined. The only real intellectual process I see involved is in weighing values. There is choice on a superficial level, in the sense that someone might choose to disregard any value system, refuse outward self-determination. But we are forced into these positions of choosing, endlessly, and so "there is no choice" on any abstract, self-contained level.

Page: 1 2 3

Sorry, you don't have permission to post. Log in, or register if you haven't yet.