Hopefully—“Choice” doesn’t seem to enter into it, in my opinion, because the person may be functionally bounded to one, determined pathway, perhaps analogous to the way that I’m bounded from flying to the moon.
He may indeed have a determined path, but as Eliezer has attempted to argue, this is not incompatible with saying that he has a choice.
I think it only adds to the the main economic theories to remain reasonably skeptical about the concept of choice
And I think that it rips them apart, because they are weaved together from the concept of choice. Get rid of the concept of choice and it’s like grabbing the thread that it’s made of and confiscating it. But the fabric is made from the thread.
If you get rid of choice, what are you left with? You need to get rid of the concept of alternatives as well, because it is the flip side of choice (a person presented with a set of alternatives is presented with a choice between those alternatives, as recognized in the statement, “you have a choice”). Get rid of choice and you need to get rid of the concept of preference, because what a person prefers between A and B is nothing other than what he would choose if given the choice between A and B. Get rid of preference, and you get rid of indifference, so you get rid of indifference curves. Supply and demand are built on indifference curves, so you get rid of supply and demand. Get rid of supply and demand and you get rid of price theory.
Hopefully—“Choice” doesn’t seem to enter into it, in my opinion, because the person may be functionally bounded to one, determined pathway, perhaps analogous to the way that I’m bounded from flying to the moon.
He may indeed have a determined path, but as Eliezer has attempted to argue, this is not incompatible with saying that he has a choice.
I think it only adds to the the main economic theories to remain reasonably skeptical about the concept of choice
And I think that it rips them apart, because they are weaved together from the concept of choice. Get rid of the concept of choice and it’s like grabbing the thread that it’s made of and confiscating it. But the fabric is made from the thread.
If you get rid of choice, what are you left with? You need to get rid of the concept of alternatives as well, because it is the flip side of choice (a person presented with a set of alternatives is presented with a choice between those alternatives, as recognized in the statement, “you have a choice”). Get rid of choice and you need to get rid of the concept of preference, because what a person prefers between A and B is nothing other than what he would choose if given the choice between A and B. Get rid of preference, and you get rid of indifference, so you get rid of indifference curves. Supply and demand are built on indifference curves, so you get rid of supply and demand. Get rid of supply and demand and you get rid of price theory.