The Right Choice: Existant or Non-Existant

[EmilyAnnCoons 7]

For those who don't understand the topic title, this topic is basically to discuss whether you think "right choices" actually exist or not. This might seem like kind of a weird thing to talk about, but here's kind of an overview of my feelings:

 

How can you decide if a choice is the right choice or a wrong choice? I always here things like "If it's right, then it's right" or "If no one gets hurt, then its right" or some such thing. Here's a little scenario for you:

 

You're walking along, and you see someone getting mugged. Immediately, you have to make a choice. To help the guy out, or not help the guy out. If you help the guy out, what is the good that comes out of it? You save the guy (possibly), you get the muggers to run away, etc. But there's a bad side to it as well. You might get the crap beaten out of you. You might get stabbed if they have a knife. You could even get shot! But what if...you walk away? You don't get hurt, maybe the muggers didn't even notice you saw them, so you get away scott free (I think that's how it is said). That's the good part, but the bad part is, now the guy got hurt. But, do you even care? You don't know him anyway, so what's it matter? We all naturally assume the "right choice" is to help the guy...but now you're both probably going to get hurt.

 

What I'm saying is: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." In turn: "For every choice you make, both good and bad come out of it." So in turn, is there a way to make a "right choice"? If a right choice is defined as something that causes good, then we have to assume it is non-existant OR that every choice is right, because good comes out of every choice. After all, if good didn't come out if it, you wouldn't make the choice, right?

 

So, what's the true definition of a "right choice"? How can you say you know a choice you made is right? What if it is right in your eyes, but not in someone else's? Is it still right? If not, then you can't make a right choice, because at least 1 person in the world will disagree with your choice. You'll never find a way to make everyone in the world happy, no matter what choice you make. So, what's the true definition of a right choice? Or is it simply that there is no such thing, and we simply need to just decide what is right in our mind and to forget what the world thinks?

 

So, now I give you all the question: What do you define as a "right choice"? How do you know you've made it? Is there even such a thing as a true "right choice"?

[rgangsta 43]

Wow that makes sense. I never thought of it that way. If the good doesn't come out for you, it comes out for the other person...generally speaking.

Damn. I can't think of a "right choice". A HUGE hole in my logic.

[formlesstree4 18]

If you think about it, there is no real right choice in the world. The 'Right Choice' is only for the current time, but will that choice hold in the future? As shown, you may have walked away from that mugging scene, but what if the mugger went on a spree and killed several people when you could have stopped him?

 

The definition of a right choice can never really be found, because nobody can do this. It may be right for the current situation, but what about the future? The butterfly effect describes this perfectly, where you can do one of two things and either way, you'll greatly alter the future.

[rgangsta 43]

That's true. Doesn't knowing that there's no "right choice" grind your gears?

[Enigma 10]

well the truth is the term right and wrong aren't ultamately true to their nature

we think them as absolutes but in actuality our definitions of right and wrong our decided by our morals which are decided or influenced by our society.

I discussed this with my philosophy professor in my summer program

he gave us a scenario

Imagine some one Named Kevin, who had a good job, a loving wife, and two happy children, every day Kevin would come home from work go downstairs to his basement and.... smash babies against the wall.

(What do you think of him)

Now what if I told you that Kevin lived in a society that 1 did not consider babies as humans until a certain age, and two had an overpopulation problem.

Kevin would think he was doing the right thing, in fact others would think that as well.

In his society it would be right to smash babies

and that would be the right choice

Now imagine, giving food to the hungry, its a charitable contribution correct?

in kevins world smashing babies is like giving food to the hungry its a charitable contribution

and most people based on their morals believe that charity is the right choice

in kevins world you wouldnt be offended by it, because know body would think of it was wrong, just like nobody or most people thinks healing the sick is wrong or taking care of those in need in our society

[formlesstree4 18]

Interesting way to put that Enigma..

[Leon Kennedy 0]

Before we can get into whether making a choice is right or wrong, we need to first look at the two aspects that make this question a philosophical one.

 

1. Right vs. Wrong. This debate has been going on for as long as people have believed in right vs. wrong. What's right, and what's wrong? Part of it is as Enigma stated - what are your beliefs, and the beliefs of the society you live in. What may seem right to you may seem wrong to another person. A good example of this is the classic Star Wars character Darth Vader. Sure, he seems like the ultimate bad guy - cool costume, great powers, bad attitude. But why was he such a tyrant? He was trying to establish justice and order in the galaxy, end the war and defeat the separatists. In his mind, he was right, and he was doing what he thought was right. Just because others didn't agree with him didn't make it wrong. It was right from his point of view.

 

2. Having choices. This one is going to make some people question themselves. Simply put, all choices are nothing more than a question which can only have 2 answers - yes or no. "Will you do [insert statement] - yes or no?" Simple. We all think that we have some ability to examine the options presented to us, analyze what they mean, and then spit out what our decision is and then everything will be all roses and bed spreads. Not so. When you look at the question asking you to choose, it becomes obvious that you are merely making a yes or no decision on the question (or of various parts of it). Once you see this, you will begin to question if you really want to say yes or no.

 

An example of this in action: You have 3 pieces of cake. One piece is angel food, one piece is devil's food, and the other is lemon. You can only eat one of them today. Your choices appear simple - do you want the angel food, devil's food, or lemon. Seems easy enough, right? Now look at the question again, and boil this down a little bit. There are 3 yes/no questions in that statement. Angel food, yes or no; devil's food, yes or no; lemon, yes or no. Now, I put that question in here in alphabetical order because that's how I order things. It also happens to be how I answer yes/no questions - by putting things in alphabetical order. It shouldn't surprise anyone that I almost always answer yes to the first option in the sequence. In fact, most people do that anyhow. So what choice was there to make?

 

Although we've examined the 2 pieces, we still can't make the determination that any yes/no decision is right or wrong. Right and wrong are subjective - it's determined by what you were taught, and how society views the actions taken by its members. So in Enigma's example, is Kevin right or wrong?

[CrimsonInferno 35]

I define the "right choice" when you feel that it is is right. When your heart tells you it feels right. When you feel right about it.

 

 

 

That's how I define it. :P :B):

[Tosharu 1]

The way I see it. We all have choices, and we all have external conflicts and inner conflicts.

 

Sometimes, we are faced with choices that we ourselves don't feel qualified to even make, but we are pressed to either by society or by the immediacy of the situation we are facing. A neutral answer just won't do in many cases, or we are pressured into choosing something NOW. Often times the rush of having to make a decision will leave a person with little to no time to REALLY think things through. When this happens, we tend to make rash judgements about our situation, environment, or others around us or even ourselves that may not be wholly acurate. Then a person will think back and wonder what could have or would have been had they done things just a little differently.

 

For me personally there's always that little "what if" whispering in my mind and it makes things difficult to see clearly what the road ahead will be like for me if I make a choice. We are all human, and at base like it or not we still have instincts and emotions and many times over we will make a choice based on our emotions or how we feel something impacts us personally. Even if we are relating our emotions to another person it always comes back to looking at our own views of life and the world.

 

An example of this would be that you have a family member who's invited you to an important family event. They say that it is the most important thing and they don't want you to miss it. Then, your boss from work or teacher calls you the same day and gives you an opportunity of a lifetime to expand your career. They say that if you don't take it now, they'll have to get somone else to do it and you could lose out.

 

So which will you participate in? Both events take place on the same date. And you can't be in two places at once and there's no way you can do both. What's more important? That family member, or this "big chance". Let's say that if you didn't take this opportunity, everyone in your work/school environment that you work with would look down on you. How would you feel making a choice like this? Conflicted, I'm sure. Anyways the point of it is that no matter how much you empathize or sympathize with somone else, it always comes back down to a root. The "I" in Life.

 

What a person feels or thinks of something or about something will determine how they react to it. I have experienced internal conflicts of this nature quite often in life, wondering... what if I had done this. Or "What would happen if I made this choice. " In the end ultimately.. it seems there are no real rules for making choices other than using your own judgement. Sure you can get advice from others, and input. My path has shown me already that taking advice from others can be VERY helpful if it is coming from the right people who are able to understand the situation clearly.

 

So, in my honest and humble opinion I do not believe there is a real such thing as a right or wrong choice because human beings are conflicted creatures to begin with. Conflict is all around us and as we grow our environments influence us. The only right or wrong choice a person can make is defined by something very good or very bad coming out of it. Again though, the scope that we are able to see of how our actions impact ourselves and the situations around us are sparse.

 

Say you are living with a relative who is not that well off. This relative of yours lives in a rural town with no real business or growth opportunities. No education facilities, no real transport other than a personal vehicle. Worse of all, the only food source available is a market place that gets their food imported from a town 800 kilometres away in a delivery truck. Everything is serviced through import. The only boom is a hard to get into industry that is already dying out. Let's say... oil drilling, and let's just assume for the record that you personally aren't fit or qualified for this kind of work. The benefit is that this relative is housing you, providing for you, and allowing you to stay there no charge. The area is quiet, nice, but rural and very sparse with a low population.

 

Now, let's say that you wanted to move out so you could expand because the slow lifestyle of a rural town wasn't working for you. However, you are the only one in the family who can live with this relative. If you left, they would be lonely. Possibly sad. Their days would be filled with reminisce of times already past and gone. Possibly their very soul crushed at the thought of you leaving. Let's assume this relative also can not leave or live in another area.

 

What do you do? If you stay there you won't really get anywhere you'll just repeat the same story every day. Do a little bit of farm work, run errands. Check mail, drink tea, chat, watch some movies. Possibly go swimming in a lake or a creek. Then go to bed.

However, if you leave. Their very soul will be crushed at the mere thought of it, led alone the actual act.

Is it right or wrong to make either of these choices? My point is that your choice will still be based on how you feel. How would the thought of this situation effect your emotion? If you moved away, would you think about this relative later or worry about how they are doing? Would you feel bad? Would feeling bad be something you couldn't live with, so much that you sacrificed your own needs and desires to stay with them?

 

Anyway, that's my two cents. And a half. :P Happy contemplating.

 

 

[Broken Messiah 20]

What i take from this

 

People in general want to look good in front of other people, so you'd expect someone to always make the right choice and display good character. But when that person doesn't have anything to gain from such a deed, the fact of whether they'll do it shows there true character.

[isaacsol 10]

I see things in logic. In essence, there must be reasons, that support a conclusion. The reasons must be strong and valid, and are not easily refuted. So to me, if there is something that does not have good enough reasons to support the conclusion, then I think it is a wrong choice, and if something has good enough reasons to support the conclusion, I think that it is a right choice. There are some instances, however, where my rationality are not in play, so I can sometimes do things without thinking it through logically to see if it is the right or wrong choice.

 

There are many flaws that I take into consideration first. Here are an example of a flaw I look out for in my reasoning:

 

Tu quoque: From Latin, literally 'you too'. It is a conclusion where its reasons do are based on the example of others, and do not support the conclusion. For example: 'I hit him, because everyone else hits him.'

 

If you want more reasons on how I determine whether something is right or wrong, feel free to ask.