Q&A: Choice
Choice
Question
Hello Rabbi Michael, I listened to your lecture “Free Will and Choice” on YouTube, and a question came up for me.
You explained that one of the differences between the deterministic view and the libertarian view is that according to determinism, reality dictates a person’s actions, whereas in the libertarian view, reality influences a person but he steers his own life.
And another explanation you gave was that in the deterministic view, a person is the sum total of the influences acting on him, while in the libertarian view, a person operates within those influences.
My question is: where is the choice even in the libertarian view? After all, a person functions within a collection of influences, and the path he chooses is the path that the strongest influence led him to.
In the analogy you gave about topography, there are influences that are the hills and valleys, and then there is the person who decides. My question is that surely, with certainty, he will decide on what is easier; and if he chooses the harder option, that is because of other stronger internal or external influences (for example, the desire to prove himself) that forced him to take the harder path.
And therefore, a particular influence does not dictate but only influences, yet the total collection of influences together dictates what the choice will be, and if all the data were calculated, it would be possible to predict exactly what the person will do.
Thank you
Answer
I didn’t understand your question. You are assuming that the world is deterministic and then asking how I can say that it isn’t. My claim is that the total collection of influences does not dictate a person’s behavior and decisions. These are influences, but he himself decides where to go and what to do. You are assuming that this decision too is only a product of the influences alone (one goes in the direction of the strongest influence), but that itself is exactly the dispute between the determinist and the libertarian. If you assume determinism, then of course you will get determinism.
Discussion on Answer
More precisely, this is about the decision whether to choose, not whether to work on one’s character traits. The decision whether to choose is not a one-time thing. At every moment you have to decide on it again. See also columns 172-3.
Is it possible to say that the only choice a person has is whether to work on his character traits, and if he does not choose that, then he brings himself to a state where he has no choice, since every decision he makes stems from the influence of some character trait?