From: utzoo!watmath!cbostrum
Newsgroups: net.misc
Title: Rationality and Justice in a Deterministic Universe
Article-I.D.: watmath.3191
Posted: Wed Aug  4 02:21:01 1982
Received: Wed Aug  4 03:39:42 1982

   From: lazaro munoz, mhuxm!3951bb
   An interesting problem arises without free will in justice system. Who could
   be arrested, no crimial guilty because they were not in a state of mind to 
   choose between right and wrong. 

Just because the universe is deterministic it does *not* follow that we
cannot be reasonably said to choose a particular action. At least I dont
see how it follows. So, it does not follow that we cannot have a justice 
system in a deterministic universe. The people who are arrested are those
who do something wrong, no? And it would make sense to punish them if they
are convicted, if there was evidence that this deterred them from future
crimes. 

It all comes down to whether or not we can still talk about rational action
in a deterministic universe. The action I describe above is the rational
action if we wish to minimise crime.
Just because our actions are determined does not mean that we cannot reasonably
and meaningfully say that they are rational or irrational. There is no mention
of free will in the common definitions of rationality, I dont believe. In fact,
there is a certain amount of determinism in the definition. A rational action
is *determined* by the evidence that is available. In this sense, rationality
requires determinism more that it requires the lack of determinism, it seems.