There is a veritable constellation of motives and impulses behind every choice we make. There is never a time when we do something "only" out of compassion or, for that matter, "only" for selfish reasons. Sometimes decision making is like making sausage, other times it is more like art, even creative. It is certainly not true that because negative factors are present in our decision making, thereby our decisions are "solely" determined by those negative factors. Indeed, in what I call the creative moral act, our decisions are something more than simply balancing competing factors, but something that truly, fully and beautifully expresses who we are -- beyond good and evil, but yet made possible by our desire for the good. In such a creative moral act, the negative factors contribute positively to the whole. Such a creative choice is an act of our whole being and is as such beyond notions of free will and determinism. The marks of such a creative moral act are that we not only are at peace with our decision but there is also joy in the actions that follow from it.
The choice comes to one like an inspiration. We stand somewhat like an artist before a blank canvas. What matters most is the intention of artist to create something beautiful. What matters most for us is the intention to be a good person. It is not for nothing that the true, the good and the beautiful are considered by many philosophers (Plato especially) to be different aspects of one reality. Yet for all that, the artist fails more often than not. Just like us.
Comments