PP31 Are Decisions real?

G'day, my name is Bruce Robertson and this is Pirate Philosophy.

Today I want to talk about Decisions and Reality.

We live in a strange, wonderful and complex world where stories and speculations vie with reality for dominance.

But where and what is reality?

The best definition of reality is: The world that lies beyond our senses. It is a world that we infer exists, but its actual nature is for ever unknown. (All we can do is attempt to describe its appearance.) Yet it is one that we require for our existence and survival.

There are just two ways that we can interact with reality.

One. We can use sense-data, that is data that enters our heads through our senses; to construct a model of the world in our heads through the logical process of pattern identification of the sense-data. We can also learn from other people, and that information also enters our heads through our senses.

For most people, their model of the world is their reality. However, from a philosophical perspective the model is best considered to be distinct from reality.

The second way that we can interact with reality is when we use the model of the world in our heads to make decisions and to put those decisions into actions through our motor outputs such as arms and legs. (I have put this in a schematic diagram).

The aim of a decision is to maximise the happiness we expect to achieve through the consequences of those actions.

Note that this is descriptive and not proscriptive; it is just a description of what people do. It is also part of the logic of the brain/mind.

The aim of happiness is more a direction than a particular goal. It is like heading in the direction of west, one can proceed indefinitely in that direction without actually arriving.

Often the aim of happiness is hidden behind sub-goals such as making friends, learning about the world, learning skills and so on.

Happiness is not to be confused with hedonistic pleasure, though that is a part of it. Happiness includes contentment, security and a general satisfaction with one's life.

Though that said, there is pleasure to be had in achieving security for the future and so one may well decide to work hard to achieve such security.

There is also pleasure in learning about the world and in improving one's model of the world so that one can be confident of making better decisions in the future.

Decisions can have short-term consequences and they can also have long-term consequences. The consequences are real. So the decisions that we make will have a real influence upon our lives.

The observation and evaluation of the consequences of one's actions can be fed back into one's model of the world to improve one's model of the world and hence to improve one's decision-making skills.

Decisions can be anything from the trivial, such as choosing what pair of socks to wear today; to the momentous such as choosing whom to marry.

A decision can include choosing to follow what other people do or simply deciding to do nothing; these too have consequences.

Consequences are very hard to predict, particularly when they involve other people, and so play is important, especially for children, so as to get a feel for possible consequences. There is no dress rehearsal in life; one has to learn as one progresses through one's life. A certain amount of experimentation in adult life is beneficial, so long as it is safe and does not lead to catastrophic consequences.

One can also choose what to say and also how to interpret what other people have said.

One can even choose what to believe, and while this has no immediate impact on reality it can affect future decisions and actions, which will have an impact upon reality.

So for example people can choose to believe in a God or perhaps to believe in the basic goodness of humanity and these will influence one's future decisions.

Examples of three types of decisions could be:

One. Action: one decides to climb a hill to watch the sunset.

Two. Speaking: One decides to say "Isn't this sunset wonderful" because one wants to share the experience with another and to encourage them to enjoy the beauty of the sunset.

Three. Beliefs: One decides to believe that life is wonderful as the experience of the sunset can incite one to be optimistic about life and hence perhaps make better decisions.

All the words, communications and writings in the world were created by people choosing what to say and what to write. And those decisions were made by the authors seeking to maximise their personal happiness. This includes all of the fictions, fantasies, science, philosophy, religion, politics and even mathematics that circulate in the world.

While many of these ideas can be useful for one's model of the world, especially the scientific ones, which are generally verifiable as they have explicit links to reality; others lie in a world of fantasy or may even be propaganda or lies, and as such need to be evaluated carefully before they are incorporated into one's model of the world.

So in conclusion, life is real, decisions are real and sense-data is real. As for the rest, it is conversation and communication; and we can choose for ourselves how much of it to incorporate into our model of the complex and wonderful world we live in.

That is all I have for you today. I will put links in the description below to videos that are relevant to this one.

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