Unsurprisingly, Dennett has attempted to shred Harris’s book Free Will to pieces. He agrees that the incoherence of the free-will illusion has been demonstrated and that Harris is not alone in concluding that the idea of free will is not simply confused but also a significant obstacle to social reform, but that is where the agreement ends. Dennett calls Harris’s book “stupid” and “a museum of mistakes”. He finishes his critique of Harris and determinism with
the following polemic:
Harris, like the other scientists who have recently mounted a campaign to convince the world that free will is an illusion, has a laudable motive: to launder the ancient stain of Sin and Guilt out of our culture, and abolish the cruel and all too usual punishments that we zestfully mete out to the Guilty. As they point out, our zealous search for “justice” is often little more than our instinctual yearning for retaliation dressed up to look respectable. The result, especially in the United States, is a barbaric system of imprisonment—to say nothing of capital punishment—that should make all citizens ashamed. By all means, let’s join hands and reform the legal system, reduce its excesses and restore a measure of dignity—and freedom!—to those whom the state must punish. But the idea that all punishment is, in the end, unjustifiable and should
be abolished because nobody is ever really responsible, because nobody has “real” free will is not only not supported by science or philosophical argument; it is blind to the chilling lessons of the not so distant past. Do we want to medicalize all violators of the laws, giving them indefinitely large amounts of involuntary “therapy” in “asylums” (the poor dears, they aren’t responsible, but for the good of the society we have to institutionalize them)?
I hope not. (Dennett, 2006).
“The poor dears, they aren’t responsible, but for the good of the society we have to institutionalize them.”
Similar words and tone are heard often regarding crime committed by young people in Alice Springs: “poor little darlings”, “misunderstood little treasures”, etc.
“Hi, please put a warning out for to all the delivery drivers in Alice Springs. Gunner’s little darlings are now targeting delivery trucks. Driver left his truck idling whilst unloading at
the rear and had a little darling open the cab door and attempt to steal. Got caught by driver then too off. Maybe it’s time for a boycott!” Action for Alice, 13 April 2022.
“This month started by me being attacked in the Coles car park by 8 kids at 2.57pm. After one little darling failed to steal my wallet and phone out of my hands I proceeded to take photos of them all.” Action for Alice, 25 May 2021.
“Told these little cherubs to bugger off after attempting to snatch my bag while walking to Epilogue after being dropped at the end of Mall.” Action for Alice, 6 February 2020.
Such expressions of disdain do not help us much to think clearly about a way forward, and they keep the revolving doors of our justice system turning.
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