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For those of you who believe that we have no free will, why should we have any legal system of laws?

If you believe that we have no free will... no ability to make any choices on our own... then why should we have any system of laws that we must follow? Why should someone be punished for not following a law when they had no ability to choose to follow it? They did not follow the law, but that was all that they could do... Why does it make sense to punish them for that?

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GJOFJ3 · 61-69, M

The tried and true T D M M I defense

The Devil Made Me Do It

ms20182878 · 61-69, M

@GJOFJ3 And it would seem that those who believe that no one has any free will to make their own choices should be totally accepting of the TDMMDI defense.

firefall · 61-69, M

If noone has free will, there's no way to stop making a legal system of laws or stop the punishments that result, however unnecessary it clearly would be.

ms20182878 · 61-69, M

@firefall Yes, it would seem that our system of laws and punishments would serve no useful purpose. It seems pretty crazy to me to claim that no one has any free will to make choices, but that's apparently what some people believe.

firefall · 61-69, M

@ms20182878 well of course if they are right, then they have no choice but to proclaim it and we have no choice but to doubt it. Not a very useful concept, to my mind :)

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ms20182878 · 61-69, M

@Greybare Yes, without free will, the definition of freedom would at least need to significantly change. So... Who is "they"?

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Carazaa · F

Who believes we have no free will?

ms20182878 · 61-69, M

@Carazaa I have encountered several people here who seem to strongly claim that there is no free will and that they have no control over anything that happens in their life. None of those individuals responded to my question, possibly because they see the difficulty in defending their position.

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