Science Forums 2

[Kriminal99]

I believe you are referring to lack of free will correct?

The pilgrims who founded the US were said to follow a belief set that free will did not exist, yet at the same time that people were responsible for their actions.

The idea behind such beliefs is similar to that of private ownership of land. True, as the native americans say, noone really owns the land and is certainly not resonsible for it's creation etc. However taking ownership of the land causes people to take better care of it, thus making private ownership a means to an end and only in this way is it justified.

Similarly, a person's actions can be a product of their past experiences and yet they still are able to "take ownership" of their behavior and alter it to best adapt to their surroundings. Doing so is a product of the person realizing that it is the best way to achieve their goals.

Additionally punishing people for failing to behave in a certain manner can be justified as a means to an end even though the person truly "Didn't know". The only way the person can know is by being punished...

For example spanking a child for stealing crayons may be percieved as random punishment initially by the child, but hopefully once he learns that any time he steals from others he will be punished he will no longer steal from others. This is the model nature uses, for if no parent or teacher intervened the child from which the crayon was stolen would which would teach the child the same lesson.

The lesson to be learned from all this is that if you are in a position of power over others such as law enforcement or law in general then the best way to handle your job so as not to encourage crime is to treat people like you are only using force against them because you have to given the consequences of not. Verbal abuse is fallacious and self centered on the part of people in law enforcement/ law because they are wholly ignorant of the criminals past experiences.