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I have been thinking a lot lately[br]about the following question:

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what would happen[br]if we came to disbelieve in free will?

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What would this mean[br]for our interpersonal relationships,

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society, morality, meaning in the law?

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For example, would giving up the belief[br]in free will have dire consequences

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for society or something?

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Or would it rather have[br]a humanizing effect

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on our practices and polices,

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freeing us from the negative effects[br]of belief in free will?

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What I would like to propose today

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is that the belief in free will[br]rather than being a good thing

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actually has a dark side[br]and that we'd be better off without it.

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I know this is counterintuitive.

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Many people fear that life[br]without free will lead to nihilism,

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there'd be no reason to go on,[br]or that it would undermine morality.

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Or that we will just let[br]criminals run free

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since there'd be no moral responsibility.

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But I would like to paint[br]a different picture for you today.

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It begins with the idea[br]of free will skepticism.

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So I am a free will skeptic.[br]I deny the existence of free will.

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Free will skeptics maintain[br]that who we are, what we do,

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is ultimately the result of factors[br]beyond our control,

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and because of this,

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we are never morally responsible for[br]our actions in the basic desert sense

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that is the sense that would make us[br]truly deserving of praise and blame.

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Historically, there have been a number[br]of philosophical and scientific arguments

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for free will skepticism,

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and I've promoted[br]these arguments in my own work,

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but I'm not here today to try[br]to convince you that you lack free will.

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It's not my goal.

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I'm actually interested[br]in a slightly different question:

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what would happen if we came[br]to accept this perspective?

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What would happen, practically speaking,[br]if we came to disbelieve in free will?

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Would it be, on the whole,[br]a good thing or a bad thing?

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And it's here that I'm an optimist.

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I am optimistic about the prospects[br]of life without free will.

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I call myself an optimistic skeptic.

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As an optimistic skeptic,

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I maintain that life without free will

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is not only possible[br]but that it's preferable.

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Prospects of finding meaning in life

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and sustaining good interpersonal[br]relationships, for example,

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would not be threatened.

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Although certain systems of punishment

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like those based on the model[br]of retribution or just deserts

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would be ruled out;

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preventive detention and rehabilitation[br]programs would still be justified.

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I will say a little bit more[br]about these in a moment.

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So as an optimistic skeptic,

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I maintain that life without free will[br]may actually be good for our well being,

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and our relationships with others,

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since it could tend to eradicate[br]an often destructive form of moral anger,

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a kind of moral anger

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that's corrosive to our relationships[br]and to our social policies.

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So to better understand[br]the dark side of free will,

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what I want to do is just talk about

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some recent empirical work[br]in moral political physiology.

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What this work has done has actually shown

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that there is a number of interesting[br]and potentially troubling correlations

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between the belief in free will

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and people's other moral religious[br]and political beliefs.

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In particular, what they found is[br]that free will beliefs are correlated

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with higher levels[br]of religiosity, punitiveness,

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and a number of conservative[br]beliefs in attitude,

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such as just world belief[br]and right wing authoritarianism.

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I am only going to focus on[br]two of these today,

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that is the connection between the belief[br]in free will and punitiveness,

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and that between the belief in free will[br]and what's called just world belief.

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So we take punitiveness for example.

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What this research has shown is[br]that where believe in free will is strong,

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as we see increased punitiveness,

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that is people are more likely to call[br]for harsher forms of punishment

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in a number of different scenarios.

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And this makes sense:[br]if you think people possess free will,

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then you believe they justly deserve to[br]be praised and blamed for their actions.

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if they engage in an immoral act, you want[br]to see them get their just deserts, right?

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It's very close[br]to a notion of retribution:

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you want to inflict harm on them[br]for the harm they've inflicted on others.

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But the downside of this is, again,[br]you can create a moral anger

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that's destructive to our relationships[br]with others and to our social policies.

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So consider this on a macro level,

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belief in free will is relatively strong[br]in the United States.

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In fact, it's built right[br]into the mythology

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of the rugged individual,[br]the self-made man, the causa Sui,

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the person that can pull themselves up[br]from the bootstraps

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and overcome all[br]of their life circumstances.

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But because we are[br]so committed to this belief,

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we are also a relatively punitive society.

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Consider this one simple fact:

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the United States makes up about 5%[br]of the world's population,

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yet it incarcerates[br]25% of the world's prisoners.

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I will say that again[br]because it's a rather startling statistic:

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we make up a relatively small sliver[br]of the world's population, about 5%,

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but we house and imprison[br]25% of the world's prisoners.

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I don't think it's controversial to say[br]our criminal justice system is broken.

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It is not working, not making us safer,[br]it's not reducing crime,

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it's, by no means, achieving[br]our desired social goals,

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and it is not reducing the rate[br]of recidivism, that is repeat crime.

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But just perhaps, if we adopt[br]the skeptical perspective,

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we might be able to adopt more effective,[br]and more humane policies.

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So let me just briefly sketch quickly

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how a free will skeptic[br]might address criminal behavior.

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There's a professor[br]- not too far from here,

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his name is Derek Pereboom,[br]he teaches at Cornell University;

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he's a free will skeptic, like myself -

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and he proposes a model[br]for dealing with dangerous criminals

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based on analogy with quarantine.

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So people who contract contagious diseases[br]do so for no fault of their own,

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they're not morally responsible[br]for having done so;

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we don't think they[br]deserve to be punished.

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But we do feel justified

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in quarantining those individuals[br]for the safety of society.

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Well, we can say the same thing[br]for dangerous criminals

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that is even you adopted[br]the perspective that I am advocating,

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and you believe that individuals[br]are not ultimately responsible

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for becoming who they are,

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we could still justify detaining those[br]individuals for the safety of society.

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But if we did this, this would entail[br]a number of major reforms,

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all of which I think are actually[br]really important and good.

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For one, we'd have the duty

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to the well-being[br]and rehabilitation of criminals,

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just like you would have a duty

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to treat the person[br]in quarantine for their disease.

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Secondly,

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you couldn't treat those individuals[br]cruelly while being detained,

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just like you couldn't treat cruelly[br]the people we are holding in quarantine.

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Thirdly, if there are less severe[br]forms of punishment available,

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we'd have to opt for[br]those less severe forms of punishment

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and that might entail rethinking[br]some of our harsher sentencing laws,

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and some of our crueler forms[br]of punishment in super max prisons.

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And lastly,

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if you are someone like myself,[br]you think it's the causal circumstances

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that drive these behaviors[br]in the first place,

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then free will skeptics would put[br]their money, resources and focus

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on addressing the systemic causes[br]that lead to criminality:

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wealth, inequality, educational inequity.

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So instead of blaming people[br]and punishing them,

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on the tail-end, you'd try to prevent[br]the criminal behavior in the first place.

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(Applause)

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Thank you.

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Not only do I think free will skeptics can[br]deal successfully with criminal behaviors,

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I think they could do so[br]more humanely and more effectively.

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So let me switch over[br]to the other belief I mentioned:

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belief in free will has also been shown[br]through this research

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to correlate with what is known[br]as just world belief.

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So what is it?

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Fundamentally, it is the belief[br]that the world is just,

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good things happen to good people,[br]and bad things happen to bad people.

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But also, fundamentally,[br]it's a blame-the-victim approach

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since it maintains that individuals[br]justly deserve what they get,

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and that those who meet misfortune[br]have often brought it them on themselves.

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In the 1960s, psychologists developed[br]what is known as just world belief scale.

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It was meant to design people's commitment[br]to this type of belief,

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but it was also particularly designed to[br]capture the natural tendency people have

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to blame those who meet misfortune[br]for their own circumstances.

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Over the years, what they found[br]is that high scores on this belief,

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correlate with the likelihood[br]of derogating innocent victims,

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trusting current institutions[br]and authorities,

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and blaming the poor and praising[br]the rich for their respective faiths.

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As I said, this is essentially[br]a blame-the-victim approach;

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you can see manifestations[br]of it all throughout society.

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One of the more pernicious

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is the tendency, both among[br]ordinary folk and the legal system,

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to blame rape victims[br]for their own circumstances.

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So if the world is just,

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and good things happen to good people,[br]and bad things happen to bad people,

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to try to reconcile[br]such a horrific act as rape

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while preserving the belief[br]that the world is just,

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you turn that innocent victim[br]into somebody that's guilty.

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They were dressed provocatively,

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they were walking[br]where they shouldn't had been walking.

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Another manifestation[br]of this blame-the-victim approach

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could be seen throughout society.

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For example, blaming those in poverty[br]for their own circumstances.

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Claiming that those on welfare[br]are lazy or mooches.

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Or blaming educational inequity on[br]the children and the parents themselves.

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But we all know, at least on a more[br]rational deliberate moment,

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that the world is not just,

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and that the lottery of life[br]is not always fair.

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We need to acknowledge the role[br]that luck plays in our lives,

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who we are, and how we turn out, right?

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We don't all have equal starting points.

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As I said in the beginning,[br]I'm an optimist,

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I am optimistic that if we could adopt[br]this skeptical perspective,

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we may be able to free ourselves

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from some of these beliefs[br]and harmful tendencies.

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In fact, there was[br]a recent study that came out

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in the Journal of Psychological Science

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that found that by reducing[br]people's beliefs in free will,

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it actually made them less punitive,

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and call for less harsh forms of treatment[br]in a number of hypothetical scenarios.

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This tells me two things: one,[br]it reaffirms what I was saying earlier,

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that where believe in free will is strong[br]as we see increased punitiveness,

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but it also provides hopes to me

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that we can perhaps relinquish ourselves[br]on some of these more harmful beliefs

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and by doing so, loose some[br]of that moral anger I've been discussing.

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So my proposal is rather simple.

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Let's not fear free will skepticism.[br]Let's embrace it.

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Let's give up the belief[br]in free will, and with it,

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the pernicious belief in just-deserts,[br]that people justly deserve what they get.

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Let's leave this adequate notion behind,

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lose our moral anger[br]and stop blaming the victim.

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Instead, let's turn our attention[br]to the difficult task

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of addressing the causes that lead

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to criminality, to wealth inequity,[br]and educational inequity.

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Once we relinquish the belief[br]in free will, this will allow us

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to look more clearly at the causes[br]and more deeply at the systems

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that shape individuals and their behavior,

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and this will allow us to adopt[br]more humane and more effective policies

0:10:01.150,0:10:03.609
in education, criminal justice,[br]and social policies.

0:10:03.610,0:10:04.920
Thank you very much.

0:10:04.921,0:10:06.210
(Applause)