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0 pointsfoldr16y ago0 comments

I'm confused by the "because" in the first sentence and the "so" in the penultimate. I see no reason why the one thing should cause the other. As I say, it's logically possibly that there could be such a causal relation, but in general there's no reason to think that doing X should feel like doing Y -- you'd expect it to feel like doing X! If I don't know what my choice will be, I'd expect that to feel like not knowing what my choice will be. Which is a distinct state from feeling that I have freedom of choice.

In fact if you use your imagination, you can come up with scenarios in which you don't know what your future choice will be, but it clearly doesn't feel like a free choice. E.g. if you say "I will choose to get a coffee if I roll the die and the number is 3 or above, or a tea otherwise."

0 pointsfoldr16y ago0 comments

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JulianMorrison16y ago· 2 in thread

Did you misread? That "because" is an internal connective inside the first sentence only. (I'd rephrase, but I'm not sure what would be clearer.)

The part explaining the causal relationship is the penultimate sentence, "it feels like my choices are not determined in advance".

"If I don't know what my choice will be, I'd expect that to feel like not knowing what my choice will be."

You expect to know what your choice will be only when you choose it. That equals the feeling of "freedom of choice".

foldrOP16y ago

My mistake regarding because. Yes, I was talking about the causal relationship in the penultimate sentence only.

>The part explaining the causal relationship is the penultimate sentence

It doesn't explain it, it just asserts it. There is no reason why a lack of foreknowledge about your future decisions should make you feel as if you have free choice. It could just as well make you feel like you're bobbing around at random in the causal flux.

JulianMorrison16y ago

Splitting the phrase/concept "free choice" into "free" and "choice", I have been mostly talking about the "free", because it describes the feeling that a choice "might be anything and I won't know until I've made it". Above, you are more concerned with whether it's a "choice" (versus "bobbing around at random") - but you know implicitly the mechanism is adaptive and heuristic and that it attempts to maximize value fulfillment payoff. So it will make a "choice" (defined in this context as a purposeful decision). Therefore, free choice.

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