Choice
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- For the mathematical concept please see Axiom of choice
Choice consists of that mental process of thinking involved with the process of judging the merits of multiple options and selecting one for action. Simple examples can involve choosing goodness or wickedness in personal behaviour, or selecting a given route to make a journey across a country.
Choice can also manifest itself in selecting the words to use in writing, or as wisdom, in demonstrating that ability to select a strategy which will gain approval in a long-term examination by many people.
Consumerist advocates of consumption in general and advertising in particular join boosters of representative democracy in singing the praises and assuming the virtues of choice. But unlimited choice may lead to confusion, regret of the alternatives not taken, and indifference in an unstructured existence; and the illusion that choosing an object or a course leads necessarily to control of that object or course can cause psychological problems.
Choice-advocates often pair the virtues of choice with the responsibilities of responsibility. Note that the consequences of a personal choice may impact on other people, and any associated responsibilities may extend into a wider society.
Philosophically, having choice implies the existence of free will and the antithesis of fate, chance and predestination.
An example of the power of choice occurs in the Mansion of Many Apartments by the poet John Keats.
Some people draw a distinction between choice (implying almost-random selection) and a decision - a selection which purportedly precludes going back or altering the selection.
The age at which children or young adults can make meaningful and considered choices poses issues for ethics and for jurisprudence.
The Australian Consumers' Association publishes a magazine called Choice.
A political movement in the United States and United Kingdom which favors the legalization of abortion calls itself Pro-Choice.