Hard Incompatibilism Summary

The Illusion of Free Will Derk Pereboom discusses the issue of free will in his work “Why We Have No Free Will and Can Live Without It.” He classifies this position as Hard Incompatibilism. Not only does Pereboom reject the idea of humans having free will, but he also rejects the idea of hard determinism. Hard determinism is the belief that every present event can be explained by previous events. Under this theory, all human behavior is caused by worldly phenomena and could not have occurred any differently. Pereboom attempts to defend his position by claiming that the only two other positions, Libertarianism and Compatibilism, are illogical. Compatibilism is the view that hard determinism and the kind of free will responsible for moral responsibility are both true at the same time. Pereboom’s argument against compatibilism is based on the point that

Believing in hard incompatibilism would be very difficult for many people because it is not a very comforting worldview. Believing that we are not morally responsible for our actions, “would have very harmful consequences, perhaps so harmful that thinking and acting as if hard incompatibilism is true is not a feasible option.” Pereboom also thought that it would threaten the meaning of life because our identity the things we love the most about ourselves would no longer be attributed to our will. People not having moral responsibility might make it seem like this makes it unjust to punish criminals, but Pereboom parallels the situation to a quarantined sick person. Putting away the criminals makes it safer for those outside the prison, and the punishment provides the motive for the person to not break the law. Pereboom also believes that we would most likely feel less anger and animosity towards each other if there was no moral responsibility because we would not attribute it to their free