ENG 4020: Blog Post 1

The main focus of this exploration will be the relation of action to choice and the will in light of epistemologies proffered by Aristotle and Barthes. First of all, Aristotle makes a distinction between voluntary and involuntary action. The main difference involves the fact that involuntary action requires two conditions, 1: that the act is performed out of ignorance, meaning that it is outside the agent, and thus contributing nothing (Aristotle, 121) and 2: that the action was performed out of ignorance. (Aristotle, 123) Therefore, a voluntary action means that the action was performed by the actor with his full consciousness and in freedom with all required information. Compulsion, while distinct and important to identify in how actions are carried out, still should be part of the actor, because the will initiates the action, although certain circumstances may move the intellect to do something that are not in freedom, one example being that a person threatens your life or another’s life if you do not perform a certain action. Although you don’t will the action in itself, you do will the safety of yourself or loved one more than the undesirable outcome you are being coerced into. With this, the will still ultimately prevails, just not in the direct result of the action one performs, but the circumstantial consequence that was added conditionally. Additionally, Aristotle would affirm that an action done from ignorance is not voluntary because the actor does not have all the information necessary to properly understand the consequences of the action. While this is true, and culpability on the actor would be dramatically reduced, the action itself was still voluntary, and the will is still totally involved, but ignorance may delegitimize the action, and so the actor may act in ignorance, but he/she still acts. In other words, the man still does something, but whether or not he can be held responsible for the ethical implications is contingent upon the awareness of the consequences of that action. Aristotle then contends that choice, which is categorized under a kind of voluntary action, is not related to choices, passions wishes and opinion. (Aristotle, 129-130) Discipline and self-restraint, when exercised properly, keep man from taking voluntary actions that are done out of passionate desires. The reason choice is distinct is because Aristotle considers it a voluntary action that has been done with deliberation, but deliberation is not what distinguishes choice. Choice is a voluntary action, but an action motivated by passion or otherwise is still a choice, and a decision in passion may still have been thoughtfully deliberate upon. The distinction Aristotle makes is not one of choice versus voluntary action that is not choice, but between a prudent, or good, virtuous choice, and a poor, dishonorable, choice without virtue. Indeed, deliberation makes a choice more intentional, and almost certainly can be considered generally to be done either of less ignorance or without ignorance as a result. Choice, then, is behind every action done by an actor. Whether for the direct result as it affects them or one they care for or for avoiding an unwanted result (affecting them or one they care for) in the absence of an action. The actor chooses, and such choice extends from the will. The degree to which the will was involved is contingent on the circumstance under which the action was taken. A choice to do something one would otherwise not choose to do under threat of an undesirable result otherwise that comes from the action of the one who threatens initiates the threatened actor to choose to obey. The actor still has a choice to disobey, but at the end, the actor will choose to obey or disobey out of a personal cost-benefit analysis of the circumstance they think will exist after their choice. If a man had a gun to the head of another man’s mother and threatened to shoot her if he didn’t kill his father, the man must make the choice based on various factors, such as how likely he thinks it is the man will actually carry out his threat of killing his mother, and whether he thinks it likely that if he kills his father, the man will not kill his mother, These and other factors contribute to the man making a decision that result in the most desirable outcome he thinks possible.

-Matt