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Question about free choice

שו”תCategory: faithQuestion about free choice
asked 9 years ago

A lot of light.

I would like to raise the troubling issue with him, as someone whose words have enlightened my eyes many times.

Regarding free choice. How can one understand the issue of choice and the fact that a person acts as he wishes without a coercive element?

After all, a person who grows up in a certain cultural environment will, for the most part, not deviate in his perception and understanding from the world he was exposed to and educated in. And if there was a coercive and coercive element in education, is the person able to break through this framework? Doesn’t the fear of being different and the desire to be similar cause a person to continue what he was educated to?

We are by nature herd and conformist creatures. Most people will continue what they were raised to do. Even those who break through barriers for the better, it turns out, also stem from an element in their personality.

If so, are we really free in our choices?

With great respect and gratitude,


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0 Answers
מיכי Staff answered 9 years ago
In my books on the science of freedom, I argue this at length. In short, it is clear that there is an influence of our nature, education, and the society in which we live. But all of these only influence what we do and do not determine what we do. A person can decide not to respond to these influences. This is the difference between determinism and libertarianism. For more information and details, see my aforementioned books.

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