Free to Choose

Virtue does not exist in a vacuum, but the concept of virtue can still be valuable to us.
Virtue is found in virtuous deeds, attitudes, and intentions in the human world. We are, in a
genuine sense, our choices, as Epictetus says: “For you are neither flesh nor hair, but decision,
and if you render that wonderful, then you will be marvelous.” [ii] These are some powerful
words. We are our faculty of choice, not just the sum of our choices or the product of our
choices. Socrates famously claimed that life isn't worth living unless it's been explored. Some
philosophers have suggested that if we don't consider why we live the way we do, we risk "living"
our one and only life, arriving at the end of it, on our metaphoric death bed, and thinking, "I
wasted my life!" Or, “Perhaps I did not live as I should have, but how could that happen when I
kept all the rules?”
In our life there are facts that we’ve decided to do or not to do that makes up our past
and current life. For me there are 3 things that makes up my life that I didn’t decide upon and
can’t control and these 3 are interrelated. First, I was born on a religious family, naturally when
I grow up, my parents immediately told/recommended me to subscribe on the beliefs that
they’ve taught to me and since I’m at the younger age where I just solely depend on my parents
for decision making, I did what they’ve told me to. Second is my impression, Lately, when I
interact with my classmates or friends, some of them told me there concerns as to why do I
sound like am angry when explaining things, but from my viewpoint I’m not angry, it’s just my
natural voice or tone and I realized that maybe because of my tone in speaking it affects my
interaction with someone. Third is my understanding nature, every now and then when I hang
out with my friends, I notice that they’ve always make fun of me (sometimes on a personal
level), and my natural response to that is just to laugh it off because that way for me, I don’t
want to complicate things further and I understand who I’m dealing with. I see these three facts
about my present situation as a “major pieces that adds up the whole” because these facts gives a
stable balance relationship for myself and to those who are close to me. In fact, I was grateful for
those moments/times that everything turns out to be fine. If I were to choose from those three
facts to look it in another way, I would choose the third one. Because if I looked at it in another
way, I could tell that the relationship of intersubjectivity taking place would be different or
should I say it’s difficult on my part to adjust a better relationship to others. I can’t walk away
from it either because for me, I can’t stop thinking on making a better decision to make a better
relationship on someone especially to the ones who we’re involved.
As much as it is a theory of choice, decision theory is also a theory of beliefs, desires, and
other relevant attitudes; what counts is how these varied attitudes (dubbed "preference
attitudes") cohere together. That is, the essential question is what criteria an agent's choice
attitudes should meet in any given situation. This amounts to a very basic view of rationality,
one that ignores more complicated issues like acceptable desires and reasonable beliefs in the
context of the circumstance. The management of uncertainty is the most important aspect of a
minimum explanation. A complex braiding of circumstances has a role in determining one's
philosophical route through life. We can't help but be born into and impacted by a specific
culture, language, and historical period. But many of us — at least in parts of the world where
literacy and education are adequate and there are no wars, famines, or natural disasters — are
also capable of critically reflecting on what we inherited from our parents and culture at large,
questioning whether the philosophy or religion in which we naturally found ourselves is truly
one that makes sense for us.

Citations:

 Steele, Katie and H. Orri Stefánsson, "Decision Theory", The Stanford

Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.),
URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2020/entries/decision-theory/>.
 Massimo Pigliucci | K.D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New
York, and author of A Field Guide to a Happy Life (2020), Skye C. Cleary |
Lecturer at Barnard College and Columbia University and author of
Existentialism and Romantic Love (2015), Daniel A. Kaufman | Professor of
philosophy at Missouri State University. Editor of 'The Electric Agora' (How To
Live A Good Life: A Guide To Choosing Your Personal Philosophy, 11th February
2020)
 Brittany, March 19, 2018 (PHILOSOPHY AS THE ACT OF CHOOSING)
https://www.apparentstoic.com/philosophy-as-the-act-of-choosing/