What We Owe to Each Other “The Value of Choice” Why does it matter whether we have a choice? 1. Why does the fact that we had an opportunity to choose weaken our complaints about others leaving us to suffer the consequences? 2. Why do we sometimes want a choice? What reasons do we have to want what happens depend on the way that we respond when presented with alternatives under the right conditions? Scanlon suggests that the answer to 1 depends on the answer to 2. Three kinds of reasons for wanting a choice: 1. Predictive: How I respond is a good predictor of what is good for me. E.g., What I order off of the menu is probably something that I will enjoy. a. Conditional: “depends on the nature of the question, my capacities of discernment, and the conditions under which my response is elicited” E.g., How much do I know about the food? Am I drunk? b. Relative: Is there a better, alternative predictor? The question is not whether I will make mistakes about what is good for me, but whether someone else would make even more mistakes about what is good for me. 2. Representative: How I respond communicates or manifests my attitudes. a. Choosing a gift for a friend, even if they know better what they will enjoy. b. Wanting not to have a choice, because of what it would reveal: e.g., “Sophie’s choice” c. Constitutive of certain valuable pursuits: choice of career, marriage. 3. Symbolic: If others are usually given a choice, it may be insulting that I am not given a choice. It may suggest that I am too reckless or immature to make a good choice. Complaints about paternalistic intervention: Strong case when the predictive, representative, and symbolic reasons for wanting the choice are strong, and there aren’t strong reasons on the other side for denying people the choice. An example of a weak case (but one that found traction in the US Supreme Court in the early twentieth century): that laws limiting the workday to eight hours are paternalistic. No serious violation of representative or symbolic values. Only a trade-off between diminished choice to decide how long to work, but better protection against being forced to make the choice. Note that the values will be different for different people. Review Questions 1. Explain how the “predictive,” “representative,” and “symbolic” values of choice might support giving someone a choice about whom to marry. (Discuss all three values.) 2. Find a passage in Mill that can be reasonably interpreted as an appeal to the predictive, representative, or symbolic value of choice. (Discuss only one of the three values.)