Q&A: Who Chooses, and Where Is He?
Who Chooses, and Where Is He?
Question
Hello Rabbi,
If a person is made up of body and soul, the body is drawn to the material and the soul to the spiritual, and one is supposed to choose the spiritual—who is it that is supposed to choose? After all, the body chooses the material and the soul the spiritual, so who is that third one who chooses between them?
The same applies more generally: why is the general assumption that there is free choice, and therefore a person who did something is punished in court? After all, the forces of his soul pull him toward evil, while other capacities pull him toward good, until this matter is resolved in a good or bad act. Who is it that chooses between those two forces, and where is he?
Answer
I discussed this at length in my book The Science of Freedom. Indeed, describing the struggle between good and evil as a struggle between impulses is nonsense. A person has impulses, and the person is the one who is supposed to decide what to do: whether to yield to this impulse or that one, or to do something else entirely. I’ve already written several times that the attempt to look for the “I” on our psychoanalytic map is a misunderstanding. Our entire psychology consists of characteristics of the “I,” which is the bearer of those characteristics. Therefore you won’t find it anywhere.
You are assuming determinism and then raising difficulties. Don’t assume it, and don’t ask difficulties on that basis.