What is hard determinism?

Hard determinism states that our behaviour is entirely the product of our upbringing, society or genetics, as well as other external factors. Since all these factors have an influence on our behaviour, hard determinists argue that we cannot have free will (or the ability/freedom to make our own decisions). Instead, they believe that our behaviour is not a result of our own choices, and so we cannot be held morally responsible for them. Some determinists may argue that our behaviour is pre-determined for us by a supernatural force such as God or the devil.

Influences on our behaviour

Influences such as:

• school
• our friends
• mental health
• upbringing and family
• society - laws and social norms

can be separated into four categories: Genetics, Psychology, Social Conditioning and Environment

The Case of Loeb and Leopold

• A tragedy of three young lost lives, a dead fourteen-year-old victim and the imprisonment of two teenage killers, unfolded in Chicago in 1924.
• Eighteen year old Richard Loeb and nineteen year old Nathan Leopold were convicted of murder, and were fiercely defended by Clarence Darrow, on the grounds that of 'diminished responsibility'.
• Darrow's plea continued for 12 hours, in order to save his clients from the death penalty. Darrow's plea used a mixture of poetry and prose, scientific fact and emotive language in order to convince the judges that his clients should have life imprisonment instead of execution.
• The case was called the 'trial of the century' as it challenged psychologists and law enforcement to reconsider crime and the influences of social conditioning.