Quote:
Originally Posted by madnak
And I don't do that. If I choose job A and the work environment sucks, I will think "I wish I had been more aware of the work environment here before I took the job." Because if I had been more aware of the work environment I would have known that it wasn't right for me, and because of that I would have chosen job B instead. Or I wish that I had preferred job B, because I chose the job I preferred and if I had preferred job B I would have chosen that job.
I don't see that any of this is a necessary or common component of regret. Regret can, and I would argue, is mostly just that at that time the person wished the just would have done differently. Obviously knowing something different at that time would could effect the outcome, but most commonly people just wish that at that point they would have just made a different choice. This is of course hard for me to prove, as is your assertion.
Quote:
But I have never wished that I preferred job A but chose job B anyhow due to my free will. That sounds horrifying to me. And it sounds like overthinking it. But if I could go back and change history so that I actually paid more attention while looking for jobs, and chose job B for that reason, or if I could go back and choose to leave everything exactly the same except that in that one moment where I chose I chose job B instead of job A, I would vastly prefer the former.
What do you mean "due to my free will?"
Quote:
I mean, would you rather have raised that pot because you recognized that it was the right play, or would you rather have raised the pot even though you didn't recognize that it was a good play, because your free will "kicked in" during that moment and caused you to make the choice you thought was wrong? Again, I take the former. I don't want to luck out on a free will toss! By the time I make my decision, I want to know my EV and I want to make my decision PURELY based on what I think the EV is. Not based on free will, but based on which action I think is best.
Again, "kicked in", what does that even mean? Do you deny that given information X decision Y is made, and that it is impossible that information X could have lead to decision Z? This again goes to the idea of a formulaic approach to life. I don't think that given information X I am now some how forced to make decision Y, but that the exact same information could have lead to decision Z.
Quote:
The same goes for all the other choices I make. I'd rather choose chocolate ice cream because I'm in the mood for chocolate ice cream than because I'm in the mood for vanilla but my free will chooses chocolate anyway.
What does it even mean to be "in the mood" in a deterministic universe? What if I am "in the mood" for Mcdonalds, am I forced to then eat Mcdonalds? If not, then how am I able to over power that "mood" and eat healthy? If I do eat healthy, does that mean that I was not actually "in the mood" for Mcdonalds?
Quote:
Again, we'd have to say "do you wish that you had chosen differently with no prior cause - or would you prefer to have chosen differently because you were smart and knew the right choice?"
I wish that given the exact same information I would have just come to a different conclusion. I don't wish that I was smarter, because I know that at that time I could not have been any smarter than I was.
Quote:
I think when most people think of "choosing differently" they thing of it in the deterministic way. If I was in the mood for vanilla ice cream, and I chose to eat vanilla ice cream, but I later regretted that choice... Then if I envision "choosing differently" I envision having been in the mood for chocolate from the start - not having been in the mood for vanilla and having chosen chocolate in spite of that.
What about my above question? If I was in the mood for ice cream, even though on a diet, and ate that ice cream, I don't think anyone would say "I wish that I was never in the mood for ice cream", but that they wish despite being in the mood they would have chosen differently.
Quote:
I would never want to do something outside of my preferences. I never want to 100% prefer vanilla, and to choose chocolate. That would distress me, I think I would seriously have trouble dealing with that. Every single time I have ever gone into an ice cream parlor, I have always chosen the ice cream that I prefer. The prior factor of my ice cream preference has always determined the type of ice cream I buy. If I'm in the mood for vanilla, I buy vanilla. If I'm in the mood for chocolate, I buy chocolate. Or maybe I'm with a girl and she likes strawberry, and I want to share that with her so I order strawberry.
I think God every day that I don't always do things inside my preferences. When my boss is bollocking me, my preference is to tell him to **** off, but thankfully I am not forced to do everything within my preferences.