Value of Choices in Relation To Freedom

VALUE OF CHOICES IN RELATION
TO FREEDOM
Freedom involves choice. It is man capacity to do otherwise.
Sartre said, it is through choice that man lives an authentic
human life
CONCEPT OF DETERMINISM
• It undercuts the human action of choosing because an

action always has one possible outcome.
• If human beings have no capacity to choose, which

means that they are determined, then this seems to
reduce the value and dignity of man, because it shows
that man cannot control the situations around him.
“Humanity without the capacity
to choose is a pawn to whoever
or whatever nature allows to
happen.”
As implied in the previous discussion, when man
cannot choose, he tends to believe that he
cannot choose, he tends to believe that he
cannot be made responsible for the choices he
makes because his actions are not from a
deliberate act of choosing but a causal
connection between events beyond his control.
FATALISM
• If human beings are determined, life seems to be futile or

even absurd, because they live to simply go with the flow,
with what the law of nature dictates.
• Fatalism, a view that states that one is powerless to do

anything than what he exactly wants to do.
The act of choosing or the ability to
choose is valuable because it gives the
human person the reason to make
deliberate actions out of motives that
reveal his autonomy as an agent or as
an individual.
SARTRE SAID “THE ACT IN BAD FAITH IS TO ALLOW
OTHERS TO CHOOSE FOR YOU OR FOR CHANCE TO
TAKE ITS LEAD.”
• Chance and choosing are not incommensurable.
• If the person has the capacity to choose, then that person
can be held responsible over the consequences of his
actions. If the choice lies in his own hands, he would take
considerable time before acting on something because he
knows that if the consequence is not what he intends to
happen, he gets the blame. Hence, the person becomes
prudent with the choices he makes.
THE NATURE OF THE CHOICES WE MAKE
• The Act of Making Choice

Renowned American philosopher Robert Nozick
explains in his 1981 book, Philosophical Explanations,
that making a choice seems to feel like there are
various reasons for and against doing each of
alternative actions or courses of action one is
considering, and it seems and it feels as if one could
do anyone of these alternatives.
The person thinks over the reasons and
comes up with an idea on which reasons
are more important, which ones have
more weight. He or she decides which
reasons to act on or decides not to act on
any of them if he/she finds all the reasons
unsatisfactory; he or she then tries to find a
new alternative.
CONCEPTS OF WEIGHING THE REASONS
Nozick, explained that when you are choosing, the act involves not only
weighing the reasons but giving weight to reason have chosen.
After you have chosen each alternative, you will realized that some
considerations carry the weight than the others. That is why choose one
alternative and discard the other.
Nozick, concept suggests a casually determined action through the

reasons; the actions however, does not have a prior causally determined
weight for the reasons. Through this analysis, you will find, you will find a
concept of causal determination that is not opposed to the concept free
will.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CAUSALITY FROM CAUSAL
DETERMINATION.
Causality is an act, which can be done
because of something, has a cause even though in
exactly the same conditions, another act could have
been done.
Causal Determinism, an act in the content of
causality is a result of a set of conditions that has
only one possible outcome.
THEORY OF VALUES IN THE ACT OF GIVING
WEIGHTS
• Intrinsic Value
Is the value it has itself apart from or independent of
its consequences. If intrinsic value is applied to the
alternatives, you choose this alternative by the weight you
give to the alternative because the alternative itself is
valuable in its own right.
Instrumental Value
Is the function and measure of the intrinsic value that
it leads to. It may be the sum of the intrinsic values of
different things it actually leads to as weighed by the
probabilities such as the expected intrinsic value.
1. Intrinsic Value: Studying is a good act in itself.

2. Instrumental Value: Studying will help you
understand the lessons well and it may help you earn a
high grade.
Originative Value
Introduces new values to the world. It may
be newly intrinsic values or newly instrumental
values. Through this third value, you may have
all three kinds of values combined- intrinsic,
instrumental, and originative. That is why a
person with an originative value can make
difference in this world. His or her actions can
affect change and different valuable
consequences can happen. However, the
originative value can be denied by causal
determination.
Contributory Value
It focuses on the value contribution that a
human action effect. Most human beings want
their actions to have contributory values. At the
very least, even if the contributory value is not
an original one, the contributory factor helps in
differentiating the existing case without the
factors effected by the contributory value if it
did exist.
When you make a choice, the act of
choosing is always intentional or
purposeful. It is a free choice that you
made from among the alternatives,
and such choice was based on the
weight of the reasons you put on the
choices.

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VALUE OF CHOICES IN RELATION

• It undercuts the human action of choosing because an

• If human beings have no capacity to choose, which

• If human beings are determined, life seems to be futile or

• Fatalism, a view that states that one is powerless to do

• The Act of Making Choice

Nozick, concept suggests a casually determined action through the

1. Intrinsic Value: Studying is a good act in itself.

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