{
  "id": "hobsons-choice.one-option",
  "term": "hobson's choice",
  "sense": "one-option",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "published",
  "level": 18,
  "domain": "agency",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "A choice whose walls another has set so that one option is open, and the only other action within reach is to take nothing.",
  "folk_gloss": "a free choice in which only one thing is actually offered: take it or nothing",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "choice.decision",
      "wall.range-end",
      "set.fix",
      "options.choice",
      "open.spatial",
      "action.deed",
      "reach.action",
      "take.acquisition",
      "nothing.absence",
      "power.over"
    ],
    "interaction": "The setter keeps the form of a choice while setting walls on each option but one; the only other act within reach is refusal, which takes nothing. The thing is free to choose and has nothing to choose among.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "a choice in form with one option in fact",
      "refusal as the only alternative",
      "power that looks like a free offer"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "Thomas Hobson, a Cambridge carrier who hired out horses in the early 1600s, required each customer to take the horse nearest the stable door or none at all.",
      "domain": "history"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "double-bind.contradictory",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "one window left open vs contradictory walls leaving none"
    },
    {
      "id": "zugzwang.forced",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "zugzwang: many actions, each worse; hobson's choice: one action worth taking, or nothing"
    },
    {
      "id": "choice.decision",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "a choice selects among options; a hobson's choice has the form of one and a single option"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "hobson choice",
    "hobsons choice"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "claude-opus-5-5:hand-curated",
    "date": "2026-09-28",
    "confidence": 0.85,
    "sources": [
      "schema/power-agency-phase.md"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-hobsons-choice.one-option"
}