Volume 30, 2023
Free Will
John Martin Fischer

Pages 37-62
https://doi.org/10.5840/harvardreview20239150
Moral Responsibility Skepticism and Semiretributivism
Moral responsibility skepticism has traditionally been dismissed as a nonstarter, but because of the important work of Derk Pereboom, Gregg Caruso, and others, it has become increasingly influential. I lay out this doctrine, and I subject it to critical scrutiny. I argue that the metaphysical arguments about free will do not yield the result that we do not deserve (in a ¡°basic¡± sense) the attitudes and actions definitive of moral responsibility. Further, I argue that skepticism leaves out crucial components of our considered views about moral responsibility, making it seriously problematic.