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Question about choice

שו”תCategory: philosophyQuestion about choice
asked 2 years ago

To the Honorable Rabbi, Greetings,

First of all, thank you,
I have a question about free choice. I asked many rabbis from the Values ​​group, and outside of them, I listened to your lectures on the subject on YouTube. It was fun and inspiring to hear and learn your line of thinking, and it seems to me that you are the right address.
The question as you presented it is that physiologically no choice is possible, since if we agree
In the case of Bourdieu’s donkey, the donkey will die of thirst, because when the considerations are equal, there is no way to choose because everything is equal. If so, the question continues and with full force. Even if we move on and say that there is something outside of physics, the same question still remains. If consciousness has to choose a side, then it must also, like the donkey, be stuck in the middle without movement or instruction to the human body. And if it has a side to consciousness or soul or whatever, which will pull for a certain side, again the choice was not its own and determinism remains in full force.
I heard in class and it’s clear that you really hit the spot, and somehow you claim that since you divided between the physical and metaphysical stages, the question seems to be weakened, and that’s not true. The question really remains in full force.

Please… I’m really having a hard time understanding the problem.😒

I would appreciate any feedback.

Thanks in advance.


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0 Answers
מיכי Staff answered 2 years ago
I did not claim that the problem is that there is no way to choose, and it has nothing to do with materialism and metaphysics. I made a more subtle claim: If man were a deterministic system, then his action would be dictated by the symmetry of the environment, and therefore he cannot deviate in one direction and is doomed to die of starvation. On the other hand, if he is not deterministic, then he can make a decision in one direction (roll a die) in order to survive.

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