Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-9nwgx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-20T10:00:39.942Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 1 - Free Will Skepticism in Law and Society: An Overview

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2019

By
Gregg D. Caruso ,
Elizabeth Shaw  and
Derk Pereboom
Edited by
Elizabeth Shaw ,
Derk Pereboom  and
Gregg D. Caruso
Elizabeth Shaw
Affiliation:
University of Aberdeen
Derk Pereboom
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Gregg D. Caruso
Affiliation:
Corning Community College, State University of New York
Get access

Summary

“Free will skepticism” refers to a family of views that all take seriously the possibility that human beings lack the control in action – i.e. the free will – required for an agent to be truly deserving of blame and praise, punishment and reward. Critics fear that adopting this view would have harmful consequences for our interpersonal relationships, society, morality, meaning, and laws. Optimistic free will skeptics, on the other hand, respond by arguing that life without free will and so-called basic desert moral responsibility would not be harmful in these ways, and might even be beneficial. In this chapter, we attempt to provide a brief sketch of the traditional free will debate, define the various positions, and frame the debate over the practical implications of free will skepticism. We focus especially on the implications of free will skepticism for the criminal law and the retributive justification of punishment.

Keywords

free will skepticismfree willmoral responsibilitycriminal punishmentlegal punishmentretributionretributivismphilosophy of lawdesertoptimismfree will illusionismdisillusionism
Type
Chapter
Information
Free Will Skepticism in Law and Society
Challenging Retributive Justice
 , pp. 1 - 26
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ashworth, A. (1994). Justifying the grounds of mitigation. Criminal Justice Ethics, 12(5), 8.Google Scholar
Balaguer, M. (2009). Free Will as an Open Scientific Problem. Boston: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Bargh, J. A. (1997). The automaticity of everyday life. In Wyer, R. S. Jr., ed., The Automaticity of Everyday Life: Advances in Social Cognition, Vol.10. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, pp. 1–61.Google Scholar
Bargh, J. A. (2008). Free will is un-natural. In Baer, J., Kaufman, J. C., and Baumeister, R. F., eds., Are We Free? Psychology and Free Will. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 128–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bargh, J. A., and Chartrand, T. L.. (1999). The unbearable automaticity of being. American Psychologist, 54(7), 462–479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bargh, J. A., and Ferguson, M. J.. (2000). Beyond behaviorism: On the automaticity of higher mental processes. Psychological Bulletin, 126(6), 925–945.Google Scholar
Baumeister, R. F. (2008). Free will in scientific psychology. Perspectives of Psychological Science, 3(1), 14–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baumeister, R. F., Masicampo, E. J., and DeWall, C. N.. (2009). Prosocial benefits of feeling free: Disbelief in free will increases aggression and reduces helpfulness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35(2), 260–268.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bloom, P. (2004). Descartes’ Baby. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Boonin, D. (2008). The Problem of Punishment. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caruso, G. D. (2012). Free Will and Consciousness: A Determinist Account of the Illusion of Free Will. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Caruso, G. D. (2013). Introduction: Exploring the illusion of free will and moral responsibility. In Caruso, G. D., ed., Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Responsibility. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, pp. 1–16.Google Scholar
Caruso, G. D. (2015). If consciousness is necessary for free will, then people are less responsible than we think. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 22(7–8), 49–60.Google Scholar
Caruso, G. D. (2016). Free will skepticism and criminal behavior: A public health-quarantine model. Southwest Philosophy Review, 32(1), 25–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caruso, G. D. (2017). Free will skepticism and the questions of creativity: Creativity, desert, and self-creation. Ergo 3(23), 591–607.Google Scholar
Caruso, G. D. (2018a). Skepticism about moral responsibility. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/skepticism-moral-responsibility/.Google Scholar
Caruso, G. D. (2018b). Origination, moral responsibility, and life-hopes: Ted Honderich of determinism and freedom. In Caruso, G. D., ed., Ted Honderich on Consciousness, Determinism, and Humanity. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 195–216.Google Scholar
Caruso, G. D. (2018c). Justice without retribution: An epistemic argument against retributive criminal punishment. Neuroethics, DOI: 10.1007/s12152-018-9357-8.Google Scholar
Caruso, G. D. (2018d). Consciousness, free will, and moral responsibility. In Gennaro, R. J., ed., The Routledge Handbook of Consciousness. London: Routledge, pp. 78–91.Google Scholar
Caruso, G. D. (2019a). A defense of the luck pincer: Why luck (still) undermines free will and moral responsibility. Journal of Information Ethics, April/May issue.Google Scholar
Caruso, G. D. (2019b). Free will skepticism and its implications: The case for optimism. In Shaw, E., Pereboom, D., and Caruso, G. D., eds., Free Will Skepticism in Law and Society: Challenging Retributivism, Ch.3 [this volume]. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Caruso, G. D., and Morris, S.. (2017). Compatibilism and retributivist desert moral responsibility: On what is of central philosophical and practical importance. Erkenntnis, 82, 837–855.Google Scholar
Clark, T. (2013). Experience and autonomy: Why consciousness does and doesn’t matter. In Caruso, G. D., ed., Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Responsibility. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, pp. 239–254.Google Scholar
Corrado, M. L. (2017). Punishment and the burden of proof. UNC Legal Studies Research Paper. Available at SRRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2997654 or DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.2997654.Google Scholar
Cotton, M. (2000). Back with a vengeance: the resilience of retribution as an articulated purpose of criminal punishment. American Criminal Law Review, 37(4), 1313–1357.Google Scholar
Davies, P. S. (2009). Subjects of the World: Darwin’s Rhetoric and the Study of Agency in Nature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dingwall, G. (2008). Deserting desert? Locating the present role of retributivism in the sentencing of adult offenders. The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice, 47(4), 400–410.Google Scholar
Doris, J. M. (2002). Lack of Character: Personality and Moral Behavior. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Double, R. (1991). The Non-Reality of Free Will. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Focquaert, F. (2019). Free will skepticism and criminal punishment: A preliminary ethical analysis. In Shaw, E., Pereboom, D., and Caruso, G. D., eds., Free will Skepticism in Law and Society: Challenging Retributivism, Ch.11 [this volume]. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Focquaert, F., Glenn, A. L., and Raine, A.. (2018). Free will skepticism, freedom, and criminal behavior. In Caruso, G. D. and Flanagan, O., eds., Neuroexistentialism: Meaning, Morals, and Purpose in the Age of Neuroscience. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 235–250.Google Scholar
Gordon, G. (1984). The Criminal Law of Scotland, Volume 1. Edinburgh: W. Green.Google Scholar
Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108, 814–834.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hodgson, D. (2009). Criminal responsibility, free will, and neuroscience. In Murphy, N., et al., eds., Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, pp. 227–242.Google Scholar
Honderich, T. (1988). A Theory of Determinism: The Mind, Neuroscience, and Life-Hopes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Honderich, T. (2002). How Free Are You?: The Determinism Problem, 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Horder, J. (1996). Determinism, liberalism and criminal law. Current Legal Problems, 49: 159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horder, J. (2004). Excusing Crime. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kaye, A. (2005). Resurrecting the causal theory of excuses. Nebraska Law Review, 83, 1116.Google Scholar
King, M., and Carruthers, P.. (2012). Moral responsibility and consciousness. Journal of Moral Philosophy, 9, 200–228.Google Scholar
Levy, N. (2005). Libet’s impossible demand. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 12(12), 67–76.Google Scholar
Levy, N. (2011). Hard Luck: How Luck Undermines Free Will and Moral Responsibility. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Levy, N. (2012). Skepticism and sanctions: The benefits of rejecting moral responsibility. Law and Philosophy, 31, 477–493.Google Scholar
Levy, N. 2014. Consciousness and Moral Responsibility. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, P. J. (2016). Quantum Ontology: A Guide to the Metaphysics of Quantum Mechanics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Libet, B. (1985). Unconscious cerebral initiative and the role of conscious will in voluntary action. Behavioral and Brain Science, 8, 529–566.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Libet, B. (1999). Do we have free will? Journal of Consciousness Studies, 6(8–9), 47–57. Reprinted in Robert Kane, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Free Will. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 551–564.Google Scholar
Libet, B., Gleason, C. A., Wright, E. W., and Pearl, D. K.. (1983). Time of conscious intention to act in relation to onset of cerebral activity (readiness-potential): The unconscious initiation of a freely voluntary act. Brain, 106, 623–642.Google Scholar
Litton, P. (2005). The “abuse excuse” in capital sentencing trials: Is it relevant to responsibility, punishment, or neither? American Criminal Law Review, 42, 1027–1072.Google Scholar
Mele, A. (2009). Effective Intentions. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Moore, M. (1985). Causation and excuses. California Law Review, 73(4), 1091.Google Scholar
Moore, M. (1997). Placing Blame. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Morris, N. (1982). Madness and the Criminal Law. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Morris, S. (2015). Science and the End of Ethics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Nadelhoffer, T. (2011). The threat of shrinking agency and free will disillusionism. In Nadel, L. and Sinnott-Armstrong, W., eds., Conscious Will and Responsibility: A Tribute to Benjamin Libet. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 173–188.Google Scholar
Nadelhoffer, T. (2014). Dualism, libertarianism, and scientific skepticism about free will. In Sinnott- Armstrong, W., ed., Moral Psychology: Neuroscience, Free Will, and Responsibility, Vol. 4. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 209–216.Google Scholar
Nahmias, E. (2002). When consciousness matters: A critical review of Daniel Wegner’s The Illusion of Conscious Will. Philosophical Psychology, 15(4), 527–541.Google Scholar
Nahmias, E. (2011). Intuitions about free will, determinism, and bypassing. In Kane, R., ed., The Oxford Handbook of Free Will, 2nd edn.. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 555–576.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, F. (1886/1992). Beyond Good and Evil. Trans. Kaufmann, Walter. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Nisbett, R. E., and Wilson, T. D.. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes. Psychological Review, 84, 231–259.Google Scholar
Pereboom, D. (2001). Living Without Free Will. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pereboom, D. (2013a). Optimistic skepticism about free will. In Russell, P. and Deery, O., ed., The Philosophy of Free Will: Selected Contemporary Readings. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 421–449.Google Scholar
Pereboom, D. (2013b). Skepticism about free will. In Caruso, G. D., ed., Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Responsibility. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, pp. 19–40.Google Scholar
Pereboom, D. (2014.) Free Will, Agency, and Meaning in Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pereboom, D., and Caruso, G. D.. (2018). Hard-incompatibilist existentialism: Neuroscience, punishment, and meaning in life. In Caruso, G. D. and Flanagan, O., Neuroexistentialism: Meaning, Morals, and Purpose in the Age of neuroscience. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 193–222.Google Scholar
Pillsbury, S. H. (1992). The meaning of deserved punishment: an essay on choice, character, and responsibility. Indiana Law Journal, 67(3), 719–752.Google Scholar
Robinson, P. H. (2008). Distributive Principles of Criminal Law: Who Should Be Punished How Much. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Shaw, E. 2011. Free will, punishment and neurotechnologies. In van den Berg, B. and Klaming, L., eds., Technologies on the Stand: Legal and Ethical Questions in Neuroscience and Robotics. Nymegen: Wolf Legal Publishers, pp. 1277–1294.Google Scholar
Shaw, E. (2014). Free Will, Punishment and Criminal Responsibility. Dissertation. University of Edinburgh. Available at: www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/9590.Google Scholar
Shaw, E. (2019). The implications of free will skepticism for establishing criminal liability. In Shaw, E., Pereboom, D., and Caruso, G. D., eds., Free Will Skepticism in Law and Society: Challenging Retributivism, Ch.10 [this volume]. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sie, M. (2013). Free will, an illusion? An answer from a pragmatic sentimentalist point of view. In Caruso, G. D., ed., Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Responsibility. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, pp. 273–290.Google Scholar
Sie, M., and Wouters, A.. (2010). The BCN challenge to compatibilist free will and personal responsibility. Neuroethics, 3(2), 121–133.Google Scholar
Smilansky, S. (2000). Free Will and Illusion. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Soon, C. S., Brass, M., Heinze, H-J., and Haynes, J-D.. (2008). Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain. Nature Neuroscience, 11(5), 543–545.Google Scholar
Strawson, G. (1986). Freedom and Belief. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Strawson, G. (1994). The impossibility of moral responsibility. Philosophical Studies, 75(1), 5–24.Google Scholar
Strawson, G. (2011). The impossibility of ultimate responsibility? In Swinburne, R., ed., Free Will and Modern Science. London: British Academy, pp. 126–140.Google Scholar
Strawson, P. F. (1962). Freedom and resentment. Proceedings of the British Academy, 48,1–25. Reprinted in D. Pereboom, ed., Free Will, pp. 119–142. Hackett.Google Scholar
Tadros, V. (2005). Criminal Responsibility. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tonry, M. (2004). U.S. sentencing systems fragmenting. In Tonry, M., ed., Panel Reform in Overcrowded Times. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 21–28.Google Scholar
Vohs, K. D., and Schooler, J. W.. (2008). The value of believing in free will: Encouraging a belief in determinism increases cheating. Psychological Science, 19, 49–54.Google Scholar
Vuoso, G. (1987). Background, responsibility, and excuse. Yale Law Journal, 96(7), 1661–1686.Google Scholar
Waller, B. (2011). Against Moral Responsibility. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Waller, B. (2013). The stubborn illusion of moral responsibility. In Caruso, G. D., ed., Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Responsibility. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, pp. 65–86.Google Scholar
Waller, B. (2014a). The culture of moral responsibility. Southwest Philosophical View, 30(1), 3–17.Google Scholar
Waller, B. (2014b). The Stubborn System of Moral Responsibility. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Waller, B. (2015). Restorative Free Will: Back to the Biological Base. Lanham, MA: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Wegner, D. M. (2002). The Illusion of Conscious Will. Cambridge, MA: Bradford Books, MIT Press.Google Scholar
Wegner, D. M., and Wheatley, T.. (1999). Apparent mental causation: Sources of the experience of will. American Psychologist, 54, 480–491.Google Scholar
Western, P. (2006). An attitudinal theory of excuse. Law and Philosophy, 25, 289.Google Scholar
Wilson, T. (2002). Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Zimmerman, M. (2011). The Immorality of Punishment. New York: Broadview Books.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×