- Salviati
- A few days ago, I bought a $5 desk toy on Amazon. Now that it's here, I'm regretting the purchase. It's not nearly as good as I expected. Oh well, it's not that much money.
- Simplicio
- Do you ever wonder if you could have done things differently?
- Salviati
- What do you mean?
- Simplicio
- Well, take that toy, for example. Could you have decided not to buy it?
- Salviati
- Well, if I had known I wouldn't like it, of course I wouldn't have bought it.
- Simplicio
- That's not what I meant. Could you have chosen differently if you hadn't known?
- Salviati
- What are you talking about? I didn't know and I did buy it. What more is there to discuss?
- Simplicio
- Were you making a real choice, or just following the laws of physics?
- Salviati
- What is a "real" choice?
- Simplicio
- A choice which could have come out differently.
- Salviati
- If I had decided by flipping a coin, then it could have come out differently. But that doesn't really strike me as much of a choice.
- Simplicio
- No, the coin's motion is determined by chaotic air currents and subtle physical factors. There isn't any real randomness there.
- Salviati
- OK, what if I use a Geiger counter hooked up to a radioactive mineral? Unless you subscribe to a hidden variable theory (which I do not), the counter's clicking is truly random. No matter how much you know about the situation, you can never predict exactly when it will go off.
- Simplicio
- We're missing the point. I don't want to know whether a Geiger counter could have made a different choice. I want to know whether you could have made a different choice.
- Salviati
- Either some part of my brain acts like a miniature Geiger counter, or no such part exists. If it does exist, then yes, I could have "chosen" differently, but I don't think you'll want to count that either. If it doesn't, then obviously not.
- Simplicio
- So you admit it! You did not make a real choice, because real choices don't exist. We're all slaves to physics.
- Salviati
- Nonsense. I wanted it, and purchased it because I felt like it. My action directly resulted from my desire. No one forced me to buy it. Physics isn't a person, actively controlling my life. You still haven't given me a definition of "real choice."
- Simplicio
- A real choice is a choice you could have made differently, under the same circumstances, under your own conscious direction.
- Salviati
- But why would I want to? At the time, I thought it was a grand idea. In that state of mind, why wouldn't I buy it?
- Simplicio
- That's irrelevant. The question is whether you could have chosen differently, not whether you actually would have.
- Salviati
- What's the difference between "I could have chosen differently, but never would have," and "I could not have chosen differently?" Those sound like the same thing to me.
- Simplicio
- They're not. "Could" is physics. "Would" is choice.
- Salviati
- But you just said choice doesn't exist. Besides, how can choice be independent of physics? Unless you want to start talking about an immortal soul or something...
- Simplicio
- It doesn't matter. A choice-making soul would have the same logical problems as a choice-making brain. And this quibbling is pointless. Choice, as I've defined it, doesn't exist. We both agree on that much, I think.
- Salviati
- It doesn't exist because it is ill-defined.
- Simplicio
- No, it doesn't exist because it fails to refer.
- Salviati
- The desk toy was just an example. Setting it aside for now, all of your arguments have been a priori, that is, logical reasoning divorced from empirical evidence. If you demonstrate by logic that something can't exist, it must be logically inconsistent. You've argued that your own definition of choice is logically inconsistent. Your position is the same as mine.
The above writing format is a blatant ripoff of Galileo. I find it rather convenient, but it is admittedly unoriginal.
