Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-28-2007
Abstract
This article demonstrates that there is no free will problem in forensic psychiatry by showing that free will or its lack is not a criterion for any legal doctrine and it is not an underlying general foundation for legal responsibility doctrines and practices. There is a genuine metaphysical free will problem, but the article explains why it is not relevant to forensic practice. Forensic practitioners are urged to avoid all usage of free will in their forensic thinking and work product because it is irrelevant and spawns confusion.
Keywords
free will, reason, forensic psychiatry and psychology, criminal responsibility, excuse, mental health laws, law and philosophy, determinism, incompatibilism, compatibilism
Publication Title
Behavioral Sciences and the Law
Repository Citation
Morse, Stephen J., "The Non-Problem of Free Will in Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology" (2007). All Faculty Scholarship. 151.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/151
Included in
Criminal Law Commons, Jurisprudence Commons, Law and Psychology Commons, Philosophy of Mind Commons, Psychiatry Commons, Public Law and Legal Theory Commons
Publication Citation
25 Behavioral Sciences and the Law 203–220 (Mar./Apr. 2007).