by Dean86 on Sun Nov 06, 2011 7:26 am
([msg=62832]see Re: What is "Choice"[/msg])
I believe I solved this very philosophical question a few years ago.
Everything is caused to occur exactly the way it occurs. Nothing is without cause (or causes). This is an absolute truth, so you can't get away from it. Therefore, there is no freedom of choice. Everything is determined to follow a certain path, so to speak, and it all happens the way it's supposed to happen. For instance, if you're playing pool and you hit a ball into a pocket (or whatever you call it), did the ball choose to go into that pocket? Of course not. We have as much choice as that ball had. Granted, we are more complex than that, but everything is caused and happens the way it's supposed to happen. Even a thought is caused. What we think is caused, what we do is caused, etc. It's all caused.
So how can there be choice when the past determines the present and the present determines the future? I don't see any other way to think of it.