Choice is not just a preference or selection but a selection out of a deliberative desire. I call it deliberative when deliberation is the beginning and cause of the desire, and one desires because of the deliberation; while the deliberation is consideration and circumspection of a purpose.
Choice
Therefore, when no aim lies we do not deliberate. So first we think, next we judge, after that there comes desire and wish for what is picked out by the deliberation, and then we choose. Hence choice is a deliberative desire.
Wish
However, wish is also a desire but for a good or apparent one; for we wish not only what is good but also what seems good to us. It is because we may wish either what is not in our own power to be done or not or what is quite impossible that makes choice differ from wish; e.g. we wish both to be always healthy and never die, but no one chooses what is impossible to be done nor what is not in his own power to be done or not, even though it is possible. Besides that, wish is mainly referred to the purpose while choice more to those which are to achieve one’s purpose and less to the purpose itself.
Therefore, it is not wrong to say that choice is wish, provided he clarifies what it concerns and how that happens – but the opposite is. For wish is said of the choice widely (we wish both the impossible and what is not in our own power), and the species by no means is said of the genus widely but the opposite, the genus is said thus of the species.
Written, translated by George Kotsalis
