How do we decide what actions to take in life?

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HJCarden
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Re: How do we decide what actions to take in life?

Post by HJCarden »

Philosophically lost wrote: February 14th, 2022, 2:28 pm When we make a choice about something significant we are basically choosing are values. where should a person look for their values. Is it all reason, is it emotion. How do we choose what philosophy of life to subscribe to and even if none. How do we make our choices?
Firstly, when discussing choices that you make, begin to take account of how many choices are made for you. The Nietzschean "camel", the beast of burden for your society's rules and expectations, is an unfortunately apt metaphor for the vast majority of people. Realize what you are forced to carry, both big and small. And then compare this pile of burdens to the values and beliefs and rules that you've imposed upon yourself. If you're honest with yourself, there's a lot more in that first pile than the second. Only a careful examination of your "values" and a careful navigation of the influences of the world will allow you to create your own values and therefore be in control of your choices assuming that you act in accordance with your values.
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Pattern-chaser
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Re: How do we decide what actions to take in life?

Post by Pattern-chaser »

Philosophically lost wrote: February 14th, 2022, 2:28 pm When we make a choice about something significant we are basically choosing are values. where should a person look for their values. Is it all reason, is it emotion. How do we choose what philosophy of life to subscribe to and even if none. How do we make our choices?
I think it's reason. And emotion too. And any other such words/influences that we can think of. It is the whole person that makes these decisions; any and all of their abilities or experiences - i.e. nature AND nurture - are probably involved.
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Re: How do we decide what actions to take in life?

Post by Arbu123 »

I think goals determine values. If I want to make money (goal), it’s valuable to have a job, to have transportation, to be skilled, etc. There are certain values that pertain to many goals, like intelligence, health, reason, etc. Intelligence is VALUABLE to almost every goal you can think of. There’s only a few ways around it. I don’t know if there’s reason to search for these values, like moral, but if you plan on accomplishing anything, search for core values.

There’s a such thing as fair treatment, deserve, justice, harmony, even if there isn’t a moral and actions can be based from these values. I don’t know what you would call them. I think most actions are derived from energy we pass around: a smile, a hand shake, a compliment, etc. How we react is often from fair treatment.
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