This was the topic of discussion in my college seminar class this week, and my professor said that in America, a lot of emphasis is placed on having options, and that we believe that the more options we have, the happier we’ll be. (Options=Freedom) However, the more options we have the less likely we are to choose any option. In a supermarket survey, when 24 varieties of jam were offered, people were much less likely to buy any jam at all than when only 6 varieties were shown. I’m trying to think about this in the context of university, and in general growing up, where naturally I, and other students, are suddenly being given so much freedom. Is this freedom fulfilling or paralyzing?
i highly doubt that choice itself is the problem. if anything, it is the lack of willingness to take responsibilty. americans have a major problem with this, and most people do (in general). this lack of responsibilty makes taking a firm stand in situations with numerous outcomes incredibly hard, but choosing when there is a small poll of options is incredibly easy – whatever option is chosen, if it is somehow unsatisfactory, one can always blame the lack of options.
responsibilty – get some!
Also, another thing is power. A lot of people make choices that will benefit them even if it doesn’t benefit they’re friends or family. And that survey makes sense b/c a lot of ppl might not want to have to choose between so many things b/c they won’t know if they’ll like it, etc…
Choice is necessary in order for virtue to exist.
Virtue is not done out of compulsion but by choice.
Does this mean all Christian virtue is false, cos of the big H-E-L-L?
See, you HAD to go and make a rational post for once, didn’t you WM? Now how can we trash you on the rant forum?!?!
I don’t agree with you, but I can see where you’re coming from. I just have issues with anything being random…and without randomness, there is no choice.
See, Monk does have his moments. Now if only I could get a whole paragraph out of him, I’d be able to give bigger compliments.
It seems to me that “options” are always a good thing. The more choices, the better – provided that the choices are MEANINGFUL.
Having the option of purchasing any one of a dozen different kinds of green beans, for example, is not all that great when they all taste pretty much the same: awful. Similarly, paying extra money to get an additional one hundred channels of television (and I say this from experience!), is not all that wonderful when fifty of them are showing “I Love Lucy” re-runs. The choices must be real choices, therefore, and not only apparent ones.
Increasingly, philosophers contend, in our “late” capitalist societies we are being offered only “apparent” as opposed to “genuine” choices: Bush or Gore? What’s the difference? Who cares?
But then a more troubling issue arises even if we accept that the choices we have are indeed genuine. This has to do with the so-called “determinist objection.” As I opt for, say, Coke or Pepsi, am I in fact merely expressing a social-economic or class bias? Am I simply reflecting the conditioning that has made me into a “docile subject” (Foucault); or a “mindless consumer” (Baudrillard); or a typical mindless American beneficiary of the system of globalized oppression of third world peoples (MacLeod)?
Or all of the above?
pardon me but what is virtue? :?
please do not bring in socrates/plato.
thank you.
I once worked at a Wine Store. We had hundreds, no thousands of different kinds of Wine. Some people would come up, walk directly to me, tell me what they liked, and wait for me to pick out their bottle. Others avoided the “snooty” Wine clerk. Others bought the same type of wine every time they came in to the store. Others tried something different each day. Different people like different amonts of choice in their lives.
I think sometimes too many options can be overwhelming. For example it’s a lot harder to decide what you are going to watch with satellite tv and it’s 6595687 channels than it is with just basic non-cable television. Same thing applies with books, I went to a bookstore not too long ago and there were tons of books that I wanted and it was really difficult to choose between them due to such a vast selection to choose from.
Variety is good, but sometimes I feel it can be overwhelming. Limitations can sometimes be a good thing.
Mass amounts of options are intimidating. People get the idea that they don’t have the choice to try all of them. If they could take the time to choose based on preferance instead of looking at jars of jelly I think they’d make more choices. Just like books if I knew which I was going to enjoy I’d be able to pick easier. Looking at covers and prices isn’t much help.
Enigma, Just because alot of choice can be overwhelming at times doesnt not mean its a bad thing. In your example you said you saw several books that you wanted to buy but you had a hard time deciding. Why is that bad, would you rathaer have a a small slection of books that doesnt contain any books that you like?
Pardon me but what is “Is?” Please do not bring in any relevant sources. Thank you.
“Bad” in the context that I am using it is relative to making things more complex than they could otherwise be. Now I agree with you that this can sometimes be a good thing if I am positive and certain about what I want with the variety offering this, but it can also be a bad thing if I have a vague general idea about what I want and there is just a massive amount of variety to choose from which confuses me as opposed to simplifying my options.
I live in Japan and I am not sure if you have ever been there or not, but there are a lot of options you can take to get around via the train system. Now if there was just one train that I could take and get me from point A to point B, then this makes my decision making process very simple and easy which I think would be “good.” However, that is typically not the case because there are usually several ways to get from A to B, variety of train lines, variety of costs, variety of times, variety of … This can be very overwhelming and in my opinion would be a heck of a lot easier if there was just one train, with one cost, with one time schedule to et me to point A to point B. It may not be as convienant as the other method, but simplifies the process considerably.
I like variety sometimes, but sometimes I just want a damn cup of coffee ala “Starbucks.” lol
Personally, I love having a myriad of choices.
As far as society is concerned, Im not sure. Having the freedom to choose from more options increases the likleihood that a person can find the most suited option for his/her particular circumstance.
Also, in the land of the free, I would like to choose a different method of insuring myself and my vehicle. Instead of bending over all the time for my insurance company.
pardon me warrior monk. your meanness and sarcasm is uncalled for. my question was a genuine question without trying to be smart assed. what virtue is, should be defined as the choices allow us to distinguish the virtuous from otherwise.
understanding what virtue is would make me understand how to make a chioce.
plato/socrates is not the only relevent source and indeed there are others. i was asking for sources other than that . comparing my question to asking for the defination of “IS” is ridiculous as these are two different things.
the word “is” signifies the existence of something. the word virtue is used to signify a certain quiality (or not, or actually i do not know, hence my asking the question.)
Maybe it just comes down to laziness? Using another book analogy, there are times when I want to read about the specificity of one certain concept and do not want to be bothered by the details of variety. I think variety can sometimes be a distraction that I do not want to deal with because it interferes with my concentration.
What is choice? Moral choice? What kind of choice? A choice between a new Mercedes or a new Cadillac? A choice between being rich or poor?
Please specify!
A bad thing? Again, what do you mean? Define bad, or evil. Well, only an uneducated layman thinks that badness or evil has anything to do with externals.
As for the educated good and excellent man: - he is not concerned with externals but only with his own moral purpose. If he keeps his moral purpose, or his moral choice, in good order, then quantity becomes irrelevant.
So, it is the quality of moral choice that is important, and that alone can be good or bad.