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If there is No Free Will, Why Do We Punish People? Name Institution If there is No Free Will, Why Do We Punish People? Free will is someone’s ability to act at his or her own discretion. The statement ‘There is no free will’ basically implies that decision-making is involuntary hence people are not responsible for their actions. The need to punish someone comes from the fact that they are guilty of a particular wrongdoing. If indeed there is no free will, why do we hold people accountable for decisions which they have no control over? Is it ethical? Is the society justified to administer judgment to criminals? This topic is self-contradicting. The fact that we can choose between punishing people and not punishing them, judging the society and establishing the ethical ground for judgment implies that there is free will. If a society can make a choice of punishing an individual then, an individual should without any doubt, be able to choose between following the set laws in a society and not following them. If indeed there is no free will, then criminals would not exist, and the society would spontaneously react to any action. I believe that each person in a society apart from infants and people with severe mental illness can act at his or her own discretion. As much as there are factors such as human genome, personality, upbringing and surrounding just to name a few which make people susceptible to crime, we are all at liberty to follow the law. The argument against free will is put forward to exonerate wrongdoers from their crimes by justifying their actions. If indeed there is no free will, why would we be interested in knowing whether punishing
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