"If I were you I would..."

That statement is just so illogical. If you were me, you would do exactly as I just did - because you would be me.

You'd have no choice. If you were me, you would have experienced the exact same conditions in my life that caused me to do what I just did or choose what I just chose.

However, if you weren't me (which you are clearly not), then you may have made a different choice. I'm sure this is what you mean.

More interestingly, the topic brings up the whole idea of free will. Think of a major decision you made in the past. Now could you have chosen otherwise?

At first thought you might say yes, of course you could have. But then why didn't you?

I'd argue the answer is no - you could not have chosen otherwise. You think you could because it seems like you could have, yet ultimately, your choice could have been predicted by a supreme being or computer that had known everything that happened in your life plus every physical action in the universe.

We like to think that we have free will. It's important that we think this, otherwise we might as well let all criminals out of jail. But, in fact, free will is just another illusion that we puny humans need to help us cope and survive in the world.



That is all.