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42 S. Cal. L. Rev. 264 (1968-1969)
Free Will, Moral Responsibility and the Law

handle is hein.journals/scal42 and id is 269 raw text is: FREE WILL, MORAL RESPONSIBILITY AND THE LAW NATHANIEL BRANDEN* Nathaniel Branden is a proponent of a philosophy of human nature which is radically at variance with the mainstream of modern psychol- ogy. Because the subject matter of Mr. Branden's article, and the opinions expressed therein, are so controversial, the Editors wish to offer the pages of the Review as a forum for an appropriate response.- The Editors I. INTRODUCTION In his celebrated criminal defenses Clarence Darrow argued for a position that amounted to the annihilation of the concept of moral responsibility. He maintained, in effect, that the accused were help- less victims of an unfortunate environment and/or a defective hered- ity, and that if any of the jurors -had been victims of a similar environment and heredity, they would be standing on trial at that moment. Darrow, in other words, was a staunch advocate of psycho- logical determinism.1 The issue of free will versus determinism has profound importance to the profession of law. Indeed, the issue of free will versus deter- minism is the most crucial question in any study of man. Before one can draw any further conclusions about the activities or states proper to him, it is necessary to know: Does man possess free will, i.e., volitional control over the function of his consciousness and therefore control over his actions-or is man an automaton, a com- plex robot operated by forces over which he has no control, a robot @ Copyright by Nathaniel Branden, 1969. This article is based upon a chapter from Mr. Branden's forthcoming book, THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SELF-EST EM. * Visiting Lecturer, University of Southern California School of Philosophy; B.A. New York University 1954; M.A. New York University 1956; Executive Director, Institute of Biocentric Psychology; Licensed under California Marriage, Family and Child Counselor Law. 1 See Edwards, Hard and Soft Determinism, in DETE miNIsM AND FREEDOM 117- 25 (1958). 264

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