Saturday, February 25, 2012

Punishment and Determinism

Does determinism give a proper explanation and attention to punishment?
One of the biggest flaws in determinism is the idea of doing wrong and being punished for it. Determinism suggests that every action that we take and every happening in the universe has a set course that is unchangeable. In other words we have no control over what happens, no matter what we do the outcome would and will be always the same. But what about when some one commits murder? Of course we could also argue that this person was destined to go to jail. A person who is aware of the idea of determinism  easily argue in court that they had no choice but to kill an innocent person, that they were destined to do so, but that destroys our whole idea of justice. Can we be guilty and responsible for a crime if our choice is predetermined? What it boils down to is the fact that no human is able to even begin to comprehend what it would take to be able to truly predict what will happen in the universe next, and this knowledge is far beyond our reach. So even if the universe is determined we still live in the illusion of having choices, and under all circumstances we must still be held responsible for all of these choices, good or bad.

No comments:

Post a Comment