Hobson's choice
A Hobson's choice is a free choice in which only one thing is actually offered. The term is often used to describe an illusion that choices are available. The best known example is "I'll give you a choice: Take it or leave it", wherein "leaving it" is strongly undesirable.
The phrase is said to have originated with Thomas Hobson, a livery stable owner in Cambridge, England, who offered customers the choice of either taking the horse in the stall nearest to the door or taking none at all.
Origins
According to a plaque underneath a painting of Hobson donated to Cambridge Guildhall, Hobson had an extensive stable of some 40 horses. This gave the appearance to his customers that, upon entry, they would have their choice of mounts, when in fact there was only one: Hobson required his customers to take the horse in the stall closest to the door. This was to prevent the best horses from always being chosen, which would have meant overuse of the good horses. Hobson's stable was located on land that is now owned by St Catharine's College, Cambridge.Early appearances in writing
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known written usage of this phrase is in The rustick's alarm to the Rabbies, written by Samuel Fisher in 1660:It also appears in Joseph Addison's paper The Spectator ; and in Thomas Ward's 1688 poem "England's Reformation", not published until after Ward's death. Ward wrote:
Modern use
The term "Hobson's choice" is often used to mean an illusion of choice, but it is not a choice between two equivalent options, which is a Morton's fork, nor is it a choice between two undesirable options, which is a dilemma. Hobson's choice is one between something or nothing.John Stuart Mill, in his book Considerations on Representative Government, refers to Hobson's choice:
In another of his books, The Subjection of Women, Mill discusses marriage:
Common law
In Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha, Justice Byron White dissented and classified the majority's decision to strike down the "one-house veto" as unconstitutional as leaving Congress with a Hobson's choice. Congress may choose between "refrain from delegating the necessary authority, leaving itself with a hopeless task of writing laws with the requisite specificity to cover endless special circumstances across the entire policy landscape, or in the alternative, to abdicate its law-making function to the executive branch and independent agency".In Philadelphia v. New Jersey, 437 U.S. 617, the majority opinion ruled that a New Jersey law which prohibited the importation of solid or liquid waste from other states into New Jersey was unconstitutional based on the Commerce Clause. The majority reasoned that New Jersey cannot discriminate between the intrastate waste and the interstate waste without due justification. In dissent, Justice Rehnquist stated:
In Monell v. Department of Social Services of the City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, the judgment of the court was that
In the South African Constitutional Case MEC for Education, Kwa-Zulu Natal and Others v Pillay, 2008 SA 474, Chief Justice Langa for the majority of the Court writes that:
In Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented and added in one of the footnotes that the petitioners "faced a Hobson’s choice: accept arbitration on their employer’s terms or give up their jobs".
In
In Meriwether v. Hartop, the court addressed the university's offer, "Don’t use any pronouns or sex-based terms at all". It wrote, "The effect of this Hobson’s Choice is that Meriwether must adhere to the university’s orthodoxy. This is coercion, at the very least of the indirect sort".
Different from
A Hobson's choice is different from:- Dilemma: A choice between two or more options, none of which is attractive.
- False dilemma: Only certain choices are considered, when in fact there are others.
- Catch 22: A logical paradox arising from a situation in which an individual needs something that can only be acquired by not being in that very situation.
- Morton's fork, and a double-bind: Choices yield equivalent and, often, undesirable results.
- Blackmail and extortion: The choice between paying money or risk suffering an unpleasant action.