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Originally Posted by Flint
A couple of thoughts that occasionally trouble me:
1) The brain regions that regulate impules and correlate actions to consequences are not fully developed until somewhere in a person's twenties !!!
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Yeah, but they don't need to be *fully* developed to stop you from random violence and destruction.
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2) Our impulse control, etc. (and basically everything about us) is genetically coded to a great extent... making us all automatons, right? I cannot validate a good argument for 'free will' unless the laws of physics are not obeyed.
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Free will can be conceived of as a physical phenomenon, provided you think the mind is a physical phenomenon, so there is no problem with violating physicalism.
People's behaviour is guided partly by their genetics, but also very much by their upbringing and recent and current environment. However, each action (for responsible adults) is chosen with knowledge of the potential consequences, and so social punishment like imprisonment is a reasonable penalty provided the laws were known in advance to the wrongdoer.
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So... we may as well just go ahead and lock certain people up, right?
Or kill them at birth, if they fail a genetic test for social adaptability to a predetermined standard.
Catching them after they do stuff and putting them in jail sure as hell isn't going to change their brain chemistry.
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Not by itself, but it can take them out of circulation until the aforementioned brain regions develop fully.