Free Will and Determinism

Page 2

Links with Moral Responsibility

There are links between moral responsibility, free will and determinism. For instance, who can be blamed for:

the crimes of Loeb and Leopold?

an 18 year old Downs syndrome girl (with a mental age of 6) who accidentally drowned a child?

Hannah Bosner killing Casey Kearny?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2bmImPNKbM (Embed)

If you know someone is:

having an affair

drink driving

or taking drugs

then are you morally responsible for the outcomes of these actions?

There were people who knew about Jimmy Saville's child abuse, but allowed it to continue. Should they be brought to justice for allowing it to continue?

This issue could perhaps link to Plato's Allegory of the Cave, where the prisoners think they are free. Likewise, we are disillusioned, thinking we can change what has been determined to happen. If our freedom is, indeed an illusion, then mustn't evil itself be an illusion, as people are not choosing to be evil or do evil things.

Sarte argued that moral responsibility is a burden.

Dostoevsky agreed that moral responsibility was a burden in his novel, The Brothers Karamozov.