Caledonian2 comments on Possibility and Could-ness - Less Wrong

34 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 14 June 2008 04:38AM

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Comment author: Caledonian2 14 June 2008 07:29:07PM 0 points [-]

It seems to me that's an arbitrary claim grounded in aesthetics. You could just as easily say "You see that? That's not a choice, just as much as a calculator is adding numbers! It doesn't matter if it's deterministic! It doesn't matter if someone else predicted you'd do it or designed you to do it! It doesn't matter if it's made of parts and caused by the dynamics of those parts! It doesn't matter if it's physically impossible for you to have finally arrived at any other decision after all your agonizining! It's not a choice!""

Now you're arguing definitions. And not actually providing definitions, which is why no one is getting anywhere.

What do you mean, when you say a thing is a choice? What properties must the thing have for you to give it that label?