Free Will Skepticism

In his free will talk, Gregg Caruso discusses how the belief in free will has a dark side and declares we would be better off without this view. As a free will skeptic, the speaker denies its existence and believes who people are and what they do is ultimately the result of factors beyond their control. As such, humans are never morally responsible for their actions.

The free will talk explores what would happen if we came to accept this perspective on a practical level. He is a self-identified optimistic skeptic because he thinks doing away with the belief in free will would be good for our well-being, relationships and social policies. Recent moral and political psychology suggests there is a connection between this belief to punitiveness and just world belief. He references the analogy of quarantine Professor Derk Pereboom makes and how that would change the American prison system. Most notably, this would result in money and resources addressing systemic causes of crimes.