Free choice?

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asked 4 years ago

Free choice
In the SD
peace,
I wanted to ask how free choice is compatible with our thoughts being deterministic?
For example, when I think about something, the brain associatively links it to a new topic, after which I think about something else, and so on and so forth.
So it can be described as a kind of long wheel of thought, related to the power of imagination.
But the thing is, all of these thoughts are actually deterministic.
Likewise, when we think about something, we can always think of a reason that preceded it. For example, an association or something, not something without a reason at all…

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מיכי Staff answered 4 years ago

First you need to distinguish between thoughts and values. According to many perceptions, thoughts are forced upon us (by truth). For example, Leibowitz believed this. According to him, this has nothing to do with free choice, which deals with value decisions and not with truth. I also don’t agree that thoughts are forced upon us. Indeed, the order of thinking has an associative effect, but what is important is the content of the thoughts, not their order. Nor is the order of thoughts necessarily forced upon us. Just because we have associations doesn’t mean that they alone determine what we will think and about what we will think. See column 175.

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דוד replied 4 years ago

But according to Leibowitz, a person also determines the values themselves, so how is this possible if there is free choice? It is at most random.

Are you saying that in fact we can decide which topic we will think about, but in many parts of it there is no choice - purely logical associations or calculations?
(As if many of the things we do in our daily lives are done automatically while we largely determine what to do)?

מיכי Staff replied 4 years ago

A person does not determine the values, but only whether he responds to them. See column 456-7.
This is a snail that does not change anything. Choice does not mean the complete absence of constraints. The question is whether the constraints dictate the outcome or only influence it. In my opinion, they only influence.