Simple Muscle Movement - Original Writing - 1521 Words

You wake up early to a brisk morning, overcast and a little chilly. You stumble around in your bedroom, naked, looking for something to throw on. You work your way to the bathroom and acknowledge that your morning has officially started. This thought overwhelms you. Leaving your room, you walk out onto your balcony where you know you’ll find something that will relieve the feeling of a crushing reality. A small rectangular box with a lighter resting on top of it is perched on the armrest of one of the lawn chairs. You sit down and reach for it. Un flip the lid and slowly withdraw the cigarette from within. You pull it to your lips along with the lit lighter in your other hand. Before you place it in between your lips you have a thought. A†¦show more content†¦The cake scenario, just like in the smoking scenario, The statement â€Å"I could have chosen something different† was made. Nagel helps us clarify what exactly we mean by this. The decision before smoking was open. You could have smoked or not smoked, and it was only when you chose what you wanted to do that you picked it. Instead of smoking you could have not smoked, you could have chosen that, just like â€Å"that†. Nagel puts it like this, â€Å"you could have chosen †¦ just then, as things actually were.† What he is saying here is that nothing different happened in this ‘other instead’ where you choose not to smoke. Everything that happened before you had to choose happened exactly the same. You still just woke up in the same scenario and feel overwhelmed. Nagel, the ever clever old man, calls bull on this. People don’t change a choice just because, something, no matter how remotely small it may seem, had to have been different. You woke up hungry and ate first, then went out to the balcony. You chose this time not to smoke because the taste of the cigarette would ruin the lingering flavors of banana pancakes still on your tongue. Or you simply woke up, but this time you were not overwhelmed. Whatever that small change was, it would be the change that allowed for a different set of events to unfold. All this to say that nothing until the moment we actually choose is determined. I need to stop and chuckle here. When Nagel presents this â€Å"conclusion† not even half way