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Do any existentialists talk about freedom to choose facts, not values, given that we don't know either way? I don't mean anything as lofty as the existence of god, but what memories are confabulated, what explains someone's diappearance, stuff like that.

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  • What do you mean by saying "to choose facts"? - Could you please clarify your point.
    – Jo Wehler
    Commented Jan 16 at 20:18
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    i have given examples @JoWehler
    – user71083
    Commented Jan 16 at 20:19
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    I cannot see the example.
    – Jo Wehler
    Commented Jan 16 at 20:21
  • "what memories are confabulated, what explains someone's diappearance, stuff like that." @JoWehler ???
    – user71083
    Commented Jan 16 at 20:23
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    I know I can't forget or remember things at will. But I do wonder how do you feel about it. Do you feel like you are free to choose what you remember?
    – Yuri Zavorotny
    Commented Jan 16 at 22:56

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I think the notion of underdetermination of facts about the past, or even the present, by empirical evidence is quite uncontroversial even outside of existentialist circles. We do it all the time and infer to (what we consider) the best explanation - in history, cosmology, paleontology. Has anyone seen the Big Bang? (of course that's a ridiculous question, given what the Big Bang was, but nevertheless illustrates my point)

From a strictly existentialist standpoint, however, I would say that the past of a human being is never strictly determined by "the facts" but by their present self-identification. That's why death is significant for existentialists - it brings this process of constant re-identification to an abrupt end and gives a determinate answer to the question of "Who was X?". Perhaps that addresses the question.

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  • what sort of things do you mean by "self identification"?
    – user71083
    Commented Jan 16 at 20:41
  • @user66697 The standard existentialist idea of 'inventing one's meaning of life'. But of course there's also a socio-political dimension to it, related to the fact that we're influenced by the society's stereotypes which supposedly prevent us from living truly authentic lives, as "The Second Sex" and similar works show.
    – user71009
    Commented Jan 17 at 12:17
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You are always free to speculate about alternative possibilities where there is no evidence to rule them out. What you cannot do is to insist upon the correctness of one possibility in the absence of supporting evidence; or, rather, if you do insist you are being unreasonable.

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  • what about beliefs rather than discussion?
    – user71083
    Commented Jan 17 at 3:13
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https://www.txst.edu/philosophy/resources/fallacy-definitions/ought-is.html

In inference to the best explanation. We may be forgiven for it, but it is not valid.

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    – Community Bot
    Commented Jan 16 at 23:38
  • @Community i'm the only one who cited anything! jfc, say whatever you like i guess
    – user71083
    Commented Jan 17 at 3:11

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