/lit/ - Literature

The nature of choice befuddles me. I’m inclined to believe we make no real choices and that we can “want what we will” but cannot “will what we want.”

I get up and pursue something I want to do. My mind is bent toward it. I am consciously aware there are other things I can do, some of which are in my better interests, but these alternatives have no pull over me.

The choice then is to either do what I want, or contravene this force and show restraint by not doing it. Not doing what I want comes at a cost of some mysterious “willpower” which I know not the shape or extent of.

I have no choice over what I want. I find myself wanting it before I even realize it. Desire originates in the unconscious.

If I am a fan of both chocolate and vanilla ice cream, and both options are presented me, do I not then have a true choice? This kind of decision problem trivializes the issue, because it assumes that I already want ice cream. Over which there is no volition, there is no choice , because there is no reason for any options to be considered and certainly not acted upon.

In the abstract I realize I can choose to do any of an uncountable array of activities right now. In practice, I don’t even consider doing the vast majority of those activities so I don’t choose between them.

Then there are the objective properties of the desideratum (the chosen option). Are we not inclined to favor choices that are objectively better— we’d prefer to eat a nice meal rather than a rotten one, or hire the best candidate for the job etc. These influences are extrinsic determinants of the “decision”

Then you factor in questions of habit, addiction, etc. It seems that the capacity to freely choose is very unlikely to exist indeed.

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