Is Moral Responsibility Compatible With Determinism?

[SenseMaker007]

At a minimum, free will is at least a useful fiction.

Thinking you have more freedom than you do can't actually give you freedom but it can cause you to punish people far harsher than you ought to in a way that is very much counterproductive rather than useful. The death penalty, which you yourself mentioned, being a prime example.

[Jehanne]

At a minimum, free will is at least a useful fiction.

Thinking you have more freedom than you do can't actually give you freedom but it can cause you to punish people far harsher than you ought to in a way that is very much counterproductive rather than useful. The death penalty, which you yourself mentioned, being a prime example.

In my opinion, executions have a brutalizing effect, making Society slightly more violent over the long term.

[SenseMaker007]

Thinking you have more freedom than you do can't actually give you freedom but it can cause you to punish people far harsher than you ought to in a way that is very much counterproductive rather than useful. The death penalty, which you yourself mentioned, being a prime example.

In my opinion, executions have a brutalizing effect, making Society slightly more violent over the long term.

If killing people who can't defend themselves is okay then it's hard to find anything morally objectionable at all without being a hypocrite.

[Jehanne]

In my opinion, executions have a brutalizing effect, making Society slightly more violent over the long term.

If killing people who can't defend themselves is okay then it's hard to find anything morally objectionable at all without being a hypocrite.

Agreed.

[SenseMaker007]

Moral responsibility isn't compatible with determinism or indeterminism. Determinism is, therefore, besides the point.

The only kind of 'real' moral responsibility is practical responsibility. In other words, even though nobody is actually responsible for what they do, the universe is, it can be useful to hold people responsible for their actions because doing so can bring about less harmful consequences. But a useful fiction is still a fiction ... so I don't think it qualifies as responsibility.