Q&A: A Question About Free Choice
A Question About Free Choice
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Suppose we were to take a person at time t0 and place him in situation X, which requires a choice. He finishes choosing at time t1. After that, we erase his memory from time t0 until time t1 and place him again in situation X. (I assume cases like this happen to people with dementia.)
Would you expect the person to act the same way?
And if so, does that mean his action is deterministic?
Answer
I would expect there to be a high probability that it would be the same, but not a probability of 1. Therefore it is not deterministic. Just as one can predict with a fairly good probability what a person will do in a given situation, but not with probability 1. By the way, even if the prediction were with probability 1, that would not mean there is no choice, only that the choice had already been made in the past.
Beyond that, what a person does is a weighing of what he thinks is right to do together with drives and other constraints.