2007-12-08 22:31:22 · 7 answers · asked by Invisible_Flags 6 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
I agree that at the heart of freedom is the ability to make a choice. Freedom cannot exist without choice, however acting on that freedom, and choosing a particular thing or course of action, isn’t in and of itself, the negation of freedom. The only time the act of choosing becomes a restriction is if one feels bound by that decision, and you preclude yourself from altering that decision. Then, and only then, can the act of choosing be seen as a limitation as opposed to a liberating act.
Hence, the degree to which making a choice becomes confining or freeing is dependent on the person’s willingness to change. For example, a racist person has the option to hate or to love their fellow man. If he chooses to hate the man, he is only restricted by his own prejudice. If his malice is that strong, then he is free to make no other choice, or to change his choice to love, and is therefore a slave to his choices. However, if he his open to argument, and open to the idea that he can be convinced that his racist ideology is wrong, then he still has his freedom intact.
Now, what I have addressed is the practical case for freedom. However, if you are looking at choice as a matter of necessity, that is imposed on us, due to the fact that we are finite beings, then yes, in that ultimate sense the NEED to choose does underscore the fact that we are not truly free in the purest sense of the term. After all, we HAVE to make a choice in everything we do, and we have no option not to choose, for even the option of not choosing is in fact a choice. So if your question is geared towards the fact that all choices that we make, are prompted by conditions that are external to us and outside our control, then yes, I have to agree with you that making a choice is proof that we are not truly free.
2007-12-09 12:17:55 · answer #1 · answered by Lawrence Louis 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
freedom is not needing to be free.
how does this apply to choices? one may have freedom of choice, but once a decision is made - even for that split second - you no longer have the option for any other action, you then have to make another choice to carry on, or back out.
- this basically goes on forever, what can break this cycle?
hell, i don't know.
2007-12-09 00:53:15 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
choice is part of freedom you can't be enslaved if your free unless your not truly free to begin with...
2007-12-09 01:27:07 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes... once we make a choice, we intend to be committed to it and carry it out at all costs... that attitude towards a choice made by us gives rise to an ego and thereby binds us very strongly to it.
2007-12-08 23:35:58 · answer #4 · answered by small 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I believe it was the rock group RUSH that said "If you do not choose, you still have made a choice!"
There is always a default choice. If we do not intervene, we have chosen the default.
2007-12-08 22:41:50 · answer #5 · answered by Jett Black 2 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Disagree.
Slavery is to abide by the choices of others, rather than your own.
2007-12-09 03:42:37 · answer #6 · answered by Phoenix Quill 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
No.
2007-12-09 07:24:39 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋