December 12, 2017, by apyah2

Deciding whether to have a baby? – Well, you can’t!

Have you ever thought about how and why we make decisions? What influences our decision making? And can we trust our ability to make decisions? #LauriePaul philosopher and academic believes there are certain are decisions we cannot rationally make. These decisions are so life changing and incomparable with other life experiences that you cannot make a rational decision to act in a certain way. The example Laurie Paul gives is the supposed process of deciding whether to have a child.

The Argument

1. In decision making we weigh up the possible pros and cons of an action and chose the one with the greatest possible outcome
2. If weighing up a decision is just examining the pros and cons, how can this be done for deciding something you have never experienced before
3. Surely, having a child is the most life changing decision person can make, but there is no way of estimating the pros and cons so there is no way of experiencing this before having a child
4. So, it must be the case that you could never truly make a rational decision to have a child as there is no conceivable way of estimating the outcome
5. You cannot make a rational decision to have a child

Implications

What does this mean? It appears that our common sense notion of decision making has been undermined. If we do rely on an abstract idea of weighing up the potential value of several outcomes, it does seem false to argue we can assess the potential value of outcomes we have never experienced. Especially in cases whereby the decision is life changing, as in Laurie Paul’s case of deciding as to whether to have a child.

---

If you enjoy this kind of thinking, and want to delve deeper into philosophy, visit the UON philosophy page.

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Google+
• Share on LinkedIn