The Illusion of the One Who Chooses
La ilusión del que elige
A reflection on how the sense of being an independent agent making choices begins to dissolve under close examination, and why this insight is not an excuse to abandon responsibility.
The Illusion of the One Who Chooses
A reflection on how the sense of being an independent agent making choices begins to dissolve under close examination, and why this insight is not an excuse to abandon responsibility.
The exploration we just did was meant to look more closely at something that functions almost as an assumption, though it is actually a belief: the belief that there is an exclusive, independent agent, an "I," that made the choice. We take it for granted that this choice is one hundred percent attributable to that "I," which we imagine has certain properties and exists as something separate and independent.
Looking closely at the moment of choice
That sense of "I am choosing," if you look closely, starts to break down. If you examine the choice itself, as I was pointing out in the exploration, the first thing we can notice is an intention. It is not so much an intellectual declaration of "Okay, I'm going to make a choice." It is more of an energy, a felt sense. If you gave it language, it would say something like, "Okay, now I'm going to move the finger," and then the movement happens. But the intention is right before the movement. That is where the sense of owning the choice, of making the choice, gets attached.
Where does the intention come from?
Even that intention, if you pay attention, is simply appearing. It is just something that appears. And if you follow where it comes from, if you keep looking and keep looking, there is no beginning. You can trace it back to me proposing the exercise. And where did that come from? You go back, essentially, to the beginning of time, if you approach it more intellectually, thinking of something like the big bang. But in actual experience, it is just a very mysterious process.
Not an argument against responsibility
The point of this is not about coming to a conclusion about having or not having free will. That is where a lot of people take this: "Oh, I don't have any free will, so I don't make any choices. Why bother? Why care? I can do whatever I want, because I'm not really doing it." And then there is this dropping of responsibility. That is not what I am trying to point to here.