Is There a Justification for the Desert System?

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Dirk Altschuler: The idea of basic moral desert is a red herring. There's no such thing. Banish it. Els, it is easy to define. It's well defined. No, it exists. Where we disagree is on whether or not we're justified in serving a the desert system and whether the desert system a presupposes certain kinds of things.

The concept of free will is profoundly important to our self-understanding, our interpersonal relationships, and our moral and legal practices. If it turns out that no one is ever free and morally responsible, what would that mean for society, morality, meaning, and the law? Just Deserts introduces the concepts central to the debate about free will and moral responsibility by way of an entertaining, rigorous, and sometimes heated philosophical dialogue between two leading thinkers.