Q&A: Intuition in Free Choice
Intuition in Free Choice
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I started reading your book Toward a Science of Freedom and I listened to your debate with Aviv Franco about free choice. From what I understood, you do not believe experiences are proof of anything, and that is also what was written in the introduction to the book. But in the debate you said that our feeling that there is free choice shows that the side that wants to argue for determinism has to prove that it is right, because that is how we feel. But that is not proof, since you said our senses can deceive us.
Answer
You are mixing up feeling and intuition. Feelings are not evidence for anything, because they are subjective. But intuitions definitely are. Every argument is based on assumptions, and those have no proof behind them (otherwise they would not be assumptions). So where do we get them from? From intuition.
Discussion on Answer
It definitely can. The senses can also be deceived, so do you reject sensory evidence too?
That is the whole point with the senses—you cannot prove anything absolutely; you just say what is more likely.
I just read a bit from your column about intuition, and from what I understood from the start, it may be that intuition is more logically convincing as proof than feeling. But still, when I’m talking about free choice, you cannot tell me what I think exists. So I do not think that means the other side has to provide evidence, because you still also need to provide evidence that free choice exists.
I do not see much point in this discussion. It seems you did not understand what you read. I am speaking only about myself, not about you. You should decide for yourself what your intuitions say.
Rabbi, I thought about it a bit, and you are right—I did not phrase the real question.
My question is: why is intuition, for you, a sufficient basis for saying that free choice exists? After all, you have no basis at all for saying that intuition is correct.
Intuition is not a proof, but it is indeed a sufficient basis. I do not need a basis for intuition, because every basis you could offer starts from intuitions (the foundational assumptions).
But don’t you think intuition can also be deceived?