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Just one thought on free will and justice:
In discussing whether nature holds a place for such a thing as "free
will" (whatever that may exactly be), or whether we are just acting out
of determinism and/or random chance, it is occasionally noted that
non-existence of a free will would have implications on justice,
especially on the question whether a person can be punished or not.
I disagree. Strongly, actually.
Punishment is used for various reasons:
- To discourage people from doing things that are assumed to be bad:
What would change if there was no "free will"? Nothing. Deterrence is
based on the notion of some degree of determinism in everybody's
behaviour: Punishment hurts; people tend to avoid getting hurt;
therefore, punishment makes people tend to avoid doing bad things (or at
least getting caught doing so).
- To "better" people who have done things that are assumed to be bad:
Actually, this is just a variation on deterrence. By having people
actually suffer the threatend punishment, it is presumed that the
deterrence is enforced on a more instinctive basis. Something like
Pavlov's dogs.
- To actually prevent people who have done things that are assumed to be
bad from doing it again, for instance by locking them away. Now this is
just a way to protect others from people who do wrong. Obviously, for
this sake it doesn't matter whether a person is doing wrong because of a
free-will decision or some inability to do otherwise: If they're
notoriously harming others, it is reasonable to ensure they just can't.
- To compensate, i.e. "undo" the negative consequences of someone's
actions. Again, in this concept it doesn't matter whether the bad deed
was of free will or determinism, nor even whether the person is likely
to repeat it at all: If someone did wrong, it is reasonable to demand
that he make up for it (provided he is capable of doing so).
Now so far, we have seen nothing that would be questionable without free
will. But there's one other reason which I set aside:
- To take revenge: This is the only reason for punishment I can think of
that would have no acceptable place in a world without free will. Thing
is, it is also the very reason for punishment that I think has no
acceptable place in the world anyway, free will or not.
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clipka wrote:
> I disagree. Strongly, actually.
If everything is predetermined, we can no more avoid punishing the person
who commits a crime than that person can avoid committing the crime in the
first place. :-)
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
I ordered stamps from Zazzle that read "Place Stamp Here".
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