You Don't Have Free Will, But You Still Are Responsible

" - - - some imagine that denying free will amounts to absolving oneself of responsibility. Maybe these are the same sort of people who would be murderers if not for fear of eternal punishment by a god. Why does anyone need the crutch of free will to behave responsibly? As a member of a social species, irresponsibility on my part is not well tolerated by my band, nor by the community of life. It has consequences. I also happen to value some things, so that I act according to those values—which act as weights in evaluating competing neural outcomes. An amoeba values food, and acts to secure it. More sophisticated values likewise stimulate sophisticated responses. It is these values that counter nihilism for me, not belief in free will."

Click on this link for more on the concept that responsibility is compatible with no free will.

Epistemic Responsibility

With so much harmful magical thinking (ya, I know, that is redundant) in so many areas in our culture, the link below in an excellent presentation of intellectual or epistemic responsibility to oneself and to others. In other words, no, you cannot just believe anything you want.

Click on the link below:

The Responsibility We Have Regarding Our Beliefs