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RE: There Is No Such Thing As Free Will
Yeh great post! I've often wondered how can courts decide if someone is guilty of a crime when they are not really in control of what they do ultimately. But like you say the whole system would break down if we didn't believe we had free will. It would get mega complicated!
It certainly does have big implications on society.
I am not saying that people shouldn't be punished even if we don't believe in free will, but it can frame the way the courts look at 'punishment.' For instance, if we don't have free will, then we should make sentencing actually about reforming someone rather than putting them somewhere that makes them worse. Also, I don't want to make the mistake of ignoring the environmental part of what drove somebody into crime. If you live in the hood and are put in an environment that doesn't have a lot of options, you may be more likely to act in an undesirable way. The implication here is that if we want society to improve, it is not only about reforming the way we sentence people but also we have to create equal opportunity.
Exactly!
yeap