Figures like Sam Harris and most recently Robert Sapolsky argue free will is an illusion. Yet most attempt to save the idea that we are morally responsible for our actions, in spite of this lack of free will to choose those actions or the freedom to have acted differently. Lawrence Harvey, grappling with the thought of Paul Rée, a thinker celebrated by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, writes that if we are to believe free will is an illusion, the idea of responsibility must be thrown away with it.

Sam Harris will be appearing via Zoom, alongside over a hundred other leading thinkers and guests appearing in person such as Roger Penrose, Sabine Hossenfelder, Sadiq Khan and more, at the HowTheLightGetsIn festival this September. Talks, debates, music, and comedy, exploring the topics you find on the IAI. Book your place now.  

“Responsibility is a chimera which stalks the conscience of those

who are not bold enough to apply the deterministic laws of nature

to themselves…”

In 1878, Nietzsche wrote a letter to Paul Rée (1849–1901) in which he declared: ‘All my friends are now agreed that my book [Human, All-Too-Human] comes from and is written by you: so I congratulate you on this new authorship … Long live Réealism and my good friend!’ Although this friendship was not to last, many commentators agree that Rée had a profound, if temporary, influence on both Nietzsche’s thought and his method of philosophical expression. Arguably, this broad consensus gives weight to the idea that Rée helped to shape the course of modern continental philosophy, albeit from the intellectual sidelines.