How do you know you have a Choice?

In reply to what senan and goken have said, how do you know you have a choice? And that your ability to choose isn't a mere belief?

How do you know that the "choice" you have made was not inevitable? As in, if you you take a look at your entire situation, life history, and say that in one instance you choose to join the military, is it possible to "copy" you (your life, history, situation, etc), and watch that copy choose not to join the military?

ren wrote: In reply to what senan and goken have said, how do you know you have a choice? And that your ability to choose isn't a mere belief?

How do you know that the "choice" you have made was not inevitable? As in, if you you take a look at your entire situation, life history, and say that in one instance you choose to join the military, is it possible to "copy" you (your life, history, situation, etc), and watch that copy choose not to join the military?

That discussion probably needs its own thread.

ren wrote:
How do you know that the "choice" you have made was not inevitable? As in, if you you take a look at your entire situation, life history, and say that in one instance you choose to join the military, is it possible to "copy" you (your life, history, situation, etc), and watch that copy choose not to join the military?

Excellent point - in pedagogy alleged 'choice' is often used as students who think they have a choice are happy students. In reality, they rarely do. It's fairly easy to trick someone in thinking he or she has a choice.

Akkarin wrote:

ren wrote: In reply to what senan and goken have said, how do you know you have a choice? And that your ability to choose isn't a mere belief?

How do you know that the "choice" you have made was not inevitable? As in, if you you take a look at your entire situation, life history, and say that in one instance you choose to join the military, is it possible to "copy" you (your life, history, situation, etc), and watch that copy choose not to join the military?

That discussion probably needs its own thread.

Well fire up the quattro then

Topic split.

By its structure the problem is comparable to, say, the problem of hard solipsism in that it demands an infinite justificatory regress and is therefore unsolvable.

In simpler words, my answer to the question of "how do you know you have a choice" would be "I don't." Of course many who claim to have an answer as to how they know, coincidentally (or maybe not so much) the same people who also most assuredly claim that they do in fact have free will, will rely on what they believe to be the will of their particular version of the almighty Ceiling Cat which is tantamount to saying that they have free will because it was imposed upon them.

I shall only blame them for the lack of self-awareness however, for the question is a difficult one indeed. The answer the late Christopher Hitchens developed for it of "Of course I have free will; I have no choice." is ironic in the same way except that it is intentionally so, and, as it happens, it is also a rather sufficient one. You don't know that you have a choice. Chances are you don't have the choice either. But you are operating in a brain that perceives the world as though it gave you free will. You have the illusion of choice and that illusion you cannot escape with dignity. So whether you ultimately have it is of little to no consequence for the time being and, given the circumstances, everyone - including yourself - would be better off under the tentative assumption that they do in fact have a choice. We don't know and we may not any time soon. But what we believe makes a difference, and since in this case correspondence to reality cannot be granted and, for all we know, would provide the inferior outcome to our perception of well-being that we happen to collectively cherish, we can, at least for now, assume one option over the other and move on.

If we could correlate and qualify every situation and every outcome, we would find out that every "choice" we think we are making has already been done before. I believe that we are "hardwired" and that the "choices" you make have already been ingrained into your subconsciousness. You are destined to be what you are going to be no matter what choice you make.

I believe that unhappiness is partly the result of your consciousness not following the predetermination of your subconsciousness. That hard wired part of you that is at your core.

i.e. I have always been the protecting type. Since I was little, I would always try to help my friends with whatever they needed. Sometimes it got in the way, but for the most part, I was always there for them. As I grew up I became a HVAC installer. It was in the family and it was expected that I would also become one. I HATED IT. I was unhappy for many, many years. For 18 years I did that work until I finally had enough. When I became a Firefighter/Paramedic the "cloud" that was my life, was lifted. I AM A PROTECTOR. Always have been, always will be. For some it was the military, for me it was public service.

My choice to become a HVAC installer was not in accord to what I was hard wired to be. Once I aligned the two (my life and my calling (the hard wired subconscious)), I became happy, which is a direct result of balancing The Force.

ren wrote: In reply to what senan and goken have said, how do you know you have a choice? And that your ability to choose isn't a mere belief?

How do you know that the "choice" you have made was not inevitable? As in, if you you take a look at your entire situation, life history, and say that in one instance you choose to join the military, is it possible to "copy" you (your life, history, situation, etc), and watch that copy choose not to join the military?

There is no other option: A door must be open or closed.
French saying: Il faut qu'une porte soit ouverte ou fermée.

Phortis Nespin wrote: If we could correlate and qualify every situation and every outcome, we would find out that every "choice" we think we are making has already been done before.

If we can't, then how do you reckon we would? Source, please.

Gisteron wrote:

Phortis Nespin wrote:
If we could correlate and qualify every situation and every outcome, we would find out that every "choice" we think we are making has already been done before.
If we can't, then how do you reckon we would? Source, please.

How we we do what? The task of correlating and qualifying every situation and every outcome is impossible, and the fact that the alternatives to every situation is infinite make compiling these facts impossible. My statement was "If we could" but we can't.

I will say I believe that the hard wiring I am talking about, those "correlated and qualified choices" we don't really have, naturally and quite unknowingly becomes part of our DNA almost as instinctual knowledge. So we make our "choices" based on what is happening and gut feelings. I might say that our gut feeling is that part of us that is that instinctual knowledge.

Source...my gut feelings on the subject and my everyday observations of the world around me.