Internal Determinism
One of the most frequent objections to this definition of freedom is that it simply replaces an external determinism with an internal one, and we are not free to either choose or want what we do not want. The desire to be able to desire what one does not desire is simply self-contradictory, and this objection becomes meaningful only in the context of a conflict between different desires. For example, when a person says that he wishes that his desire for slenderness were greater than his desire for ice cream, what he really means is either: 1. He wishes to find an effective way of modifying his behavior in accordance with the magnitude of his desires, or 2. He wants the listener to accept him in spite of the obesity that results from his continued greater desire for ice cream, or 3. He wishes that the world were so simple that no such decisions were necessary. Deterministic knowledge provides the means toward effective solutions which will free the person from the conflict. In this example, either self-modification through therapy, or world modification through creation of low-calorie ice cream, effectively reconciles the two conflicting desires.
