What is the "right" choice?

In the article the author asks, how do we determine in the first place which is the "right" choice? He asks this question when talking about free will and whether it exists. This is a very good point because if we are truly free, not predetermined, then the chances that we will not make the "right" decision is great. We can use our knowledge of the world to make our decisions but knowing that we make these decisions purely of our own volition makes us question whether we made the right choice or not. Some people just have really bad luck. Is this because the world decided that they would be unlucky or are they making the wrong decisions. A determinist would say that all the events up until that moment determined that that person would be unlucky. A free will believer would say that the person simply made bad choices. There is no way in either belief system to fully know if we made the "right" choice. We as humans and not knowing fully whether we are determined or if we have free will simply must trust our minds to make the choices or to trust that the plan determined for us will not lead us astray.

The Universe

In class yesterday I wanted to ask if someone who believes in determinism and rejects the idea of God then what do they say created the universe? By being a determinist you believe that since the beginning of the universe every event is determined based on all that has happened. So what created the universe? The beginning of the universe can be argued as the beginning of time, space and everything. What existed before the universe? Nothing. Does determinism not start until the universe and maybe before the universe free will existed? However then the question of for who free will existed if nothing and no one existed.

The Prisoner's Dilemma

The Prisoner's Dilemma is an interesting concept. More people should understand this concept because then they would make more educated decisions about whether or not to cooperate with another person especially if they will be reasoning with this person again. In the example Houchin mentions the neighborhood people defect on the builder even though it would be more profitable for both parties to cooperate. I see no reason for people to, in general, to defect because if they can get the other participant to cooperate then they are always better than if they both defect. Most people however do not think like this, they think, "well their going to defect because they are greedy so I will defect so I do not get the smaller piece of the pie."  I think if more people understood that by cooperation they profit more than through defection then there would be more cooperation.