Just so I’m clear: when you call that a lack of choice, do you mean to distinguish it from anything? That is, is there anything in the world you would call the presence of choice? Does the word “choice,” for you, have a real referent?
Does the word “choice,” for you, have a real referent?
Sure. I walk into a ice cream parlour, which flavour am I going to choose? Can you predict? Can anyone predict with complete certainty? If not, I’ll make a choice.
This definition of choice is empty. If I can’t predict which flavour you will buy based on knowing what flavours you like or what you want, you aren’t choosing in any meaningful sense at all. You’re just arbitrarily, capriciously, picking a flavour at random. Your “choice” doesn’t even contribute to your own benefit.
If it’s delicious, then any observer who knows what you consider delicious could have predicted what you chose. (Unless there are a few flavours that you deem exactly equally delicious, in which case it makes no difference, and you are choosing at random between them.)
in which case it makes no difference, and you are choosing at random between them
Oh, no, it does make a difference for my flavour preferences are not stable and depend on a variety of things like my mood, the season, the last food I ate, etc. etc.
Just so I’m clear: when you call that a lack of choice, do you mean to distinguish it from anything? That is, is there anything in the world you would call the presence of choice? Does the word “choice,” for you, have a real referent?
Sure. I walk into a ice cream parlour, which flavour am I going to choose? Can you predict? Can anyone predict with complete certainty? If not, I’ll make a choice.
This definition of choice is empty. If I can’t predict which flavour you will buy based on knowing what flavours you like or what you want, you aren’t choosing in any meaningful sense at all. You’re just arbitrarily, capriciously, picking a flavour at random. Your “choice” doesn’t even contribute to your own benefit.
You keep thinking that and I’ll enjoy the delicious ice cream that I chose.
If it’s delicious, then any observer who knows what you consider delicious could have predicted what you chose. (Unless there are a few flavours that you deem exactly equally delicious, in which case it makes no difference, and you are choosing at random between them.)
Oh, no, it does make a difference for my flavour preferences are not stable and depend on a variety of things like my mood, the season, the last food I ate, etc. etc.
And all of those things are known by a sufficiently informed observer...
Show me one.
No need. It only needs to be possible for
to be true!
So how do you know what’s possible? Do you have data, by any chance? Pray tell!
Are you going to assert that your preferences are stored outside your brain, beyond the reach of causality? Perhaps in some kind of platonic realm?
Mood—check, that shows up in facial expressions, at least.
Season—check, all you have to do is look out the window, or look at the calendar.
Last food you ate—check, I can follow you around for a day, or just scan your stomach.
This line of argument really seems futile. Is it so hard to believe that your mind is made of parts, just like everything else in the universe?
So, show me.
OK. Thanks for clarifying.