Free Will Denial, Punishment, and Original Position Deliberation

Main Article Content

Benjamin Vilhauer

Abstract

I defend a deontological social contract justification of punishment for philosophers who deny free will and moral responsibility (FW/MR). Even if nobody has FW/MR, a criminal justice system is fair to the people it targets if we would consent to it in a version of original position deliberation where we assumed that we would be targeted by the justice system when the veil is raised. Even if we assumed we would be convicted of a crime, we would consent to the imprisonment of violent criminals if prison conditions were better than the state of nature but deterring enough to prevent the state of nature.

Article Details

How to Cite
“Free Will Denial, Punishment, and Original Position Deliberation”. 2024. Diametros 21 (79): 91-106. https://doi.org/10.33392/diam.1928.
Section
Articles

How to Cite

“Free Will Denial, Punishment, and Original Position Deliberation”. 2024. Diametros 21 (79): 91-106. https://doi.org/10.33392/diam.1928.
Share |

References

Caruso G.D. (2021), Rejecting Retributivism: Free Will, Punishment, and Criminal Justice, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Caruso G.D., Pereboom D. (2020), “A Non-Punitive Alternative to Punishment,” [in:] The Routledge Handbook on the Philosophy and Science of Punishment, F. Focquaert, E. Shaw, B.N. Waller (eds.), Routledge, New York: 355–365.

Clark M. (2004), “A Non-Retributive Kantian Approach to Punishment,” Ratio 17 (1): 12–27.

Dahl N.O. (1967), “‘Ought’ and Blameworthiness,” The Journal of Philosophy 64 (13): 418–428.

Dolovich S. (2004), “Legitimate Punishment in Liberal Democracy,” Buffalo Criminal Law Review 7 (2): 307–442.

Fischer J.M. (2003), “‘Ought-Implies-Can’, Causal Determinism and Moral Responsibility,” Analysis 63 (3): 244–250.

Harsanyi J. (1975), “Can the Maximin Principle Serve as a Basis for Morality? A Critique of John Rawls’s Theory,” American Political Science Review 69 (2): 594–606.

Kant I. (1996), Practical Philosophy, trans. and ed. M.J. Gregor, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Lemos J. (2016), “Moral Concerns about Responsibility Denial and the Quarantine of Violent Criminals,” Law and Philosophy 35 (5): 461–483.

Lemos J. (2023), Free Will’s Value. Criminal Justice, Pride, and Love, Routledge, New York.

Murphy J.G. (1973), “Marxism and Retribution,” Philosophy and Public Affairs 2 (3): 217–243.

Pereboom D. (2001), Living without Free Will, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Pereboom D. (2014), Free Will, Agency, and Meaning in Life, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Pereboom D. (2021), Wrongdoing and the Moral Emotions, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Rawls J. (1999), A Theory of Justice: Revised Edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA).

Schwan B. (2018), “What Ability Can Do,” Philosophical Studies 175 (3): 703–723.

Shaw E. (2019), “Justice without Moral Responsibility?,” Journal of Information Ethics 28 (1): 95–130.

Smilansky S. (1996), “Responsibility and Desert: Defending the Connection,” Mind 105 (417): 157–163.

Smilansky S. (2000), Free Will and Illusion, Oxford Clarendon, Oxford.

Smilansky S. (2011), “Hard Determinism and Punishment: A Practical Reductio,” Law and Philosophy 30 (3): 353–367.

Smilansky S. (2019), “Free Will Skepticism and Deontological Constraints,” [in:] Free Will Skepticism in Law and Society: Challenging Retributive Justice, E. Shaw, D. Pereboom, G.D. Caruso (eds.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 29–42.

Stein A. (2005), Foundations of Evidence Law, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Sterba J.P. (1977), “Retributive Justice,” Political Theory 5 (3): 349–362.

US Supreme Court (1970), In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358.

Tribe L.H. (1971), “Trial by Mathematics: Precision and Ritual in the Legal Process,” Harvard Law Review 84 (6): 1329–1393.

Vilhauer B. (2009), “Free Will Skepticism and Personhood as a Desert Base,” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 39 (3): 489–511.

Vilhauer B. (2013), “Persons, Punishment, and Free Will Skepticism,” Philosophical Studies 162 (2): 143–163.

Vilhauer B. (2019), “Deontology and Deterrence for Free Will Deniers,” [in:] Free Will Skepticism in Law and Society: Challenging Retributive Justice, E. Shaw, D. Pereboom, G.D. Caruso (eds.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 116-138.

Vilhauer B. (2023a), “An Asymmetrical Approach to Kant’s Theory of Freedom,” [in:] The Idea of Freedom: New Essays on the Kantian Theory of Freedom, D. Heide, E. Tiffany (eds.), Oxford University Press, Oxford: 130–149.

Vilhauer B. (2023b), “Free Will Skepticism and Criminals as Ends in Themselves,” [in:] The Palgrave Handbook on the Philosophy of Punishment, M.C. Altman (ed.), Palgrave-Macmillan, New York: 535–556.

Vilhauer B. (2024), “Five Perspectives on Holding Wrongdoers Responsible in Kant,” British Journal for the History of Philosophy 32 (1): 100–125.