Just Deserts: Debating Free Will by Daniel C. Dennett & Gregg D. Caruso

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Philosophy Now
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Just Deserts: Debating Free Will by Daniel C. Dennett & Gregg D. Caruso

Post by Philosophy Now »

Stuart Jeffries considers the moral implications of a (possible) lack of free will.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/145/Just_Deserts_Debating_Free_Will_by_Daniel_C_Dennett_and_Gregg_D_Caruso
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Terrapin Station
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Re: Just Deserts: Debating Free Will by Daniel C. Dennett & Gregg D. Caruso

Post by Terrapin Station »

For one, if there's no free will, then it's not like we can choose to not imprison others. We've imprisoned people who have committed crimes because we were compelled to. We had no choice in the matter. And it's not something we can willingly change. It just depends on the forces at work that we have no control over whether it will change or not.

It makes no sense to argue over whether imprisoning people is just or not in this case. That would only make sense if there were a way that it could be different.

Re Dennett's comments, I don't at all get how he's a compatibilist. He doesn't seem to believe that determinism is the case. That would make him not a compatibilist, but a libertarian (in the free will sense).

I'm a libertarian, by the way. Not a compatibilist. I've yet to see a version of compatibilism that I consider coherent.
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