Free Will Is the Wrong Question

“It makes no difference whether determinism is true or false. We can’t be ultimately morally responsible either way.” A philosophy professor takes the gravity out of the free-will debate. “There may be all sorts of other factors affecting and changing you. Determinism may be false: some changes in the way you are may come about as a result of the influence of indeterministic or random factors,” says professor Galen Strawson. “But you obviously can’t be responsible for the effects of any random factors, so they can’t help you to become ultimately morally responsible for how you are.”