Starting Point

 What topic are you planning on researching?
I plan to research the topic 'Determinism' which had three main aspects to it: Hard Determinism, Libertarianism and Compatibalism.

I am going to visit each of these aspects and seperately decide how each of these may undermine the legal system by investigating their implications on praise and blame in our society today in order to come to an overall conclusion on whether Determinism does undermine the Legal System.

In order to do this I am also going to research the current Legal System in the UK to gain an understanding on the rules which surround those with mental disabilities and how this affects different forms of punishment.

Why are you interested in this topic?
I am interested in this topic as I am planning on studying Philosophy at university, and I have an interest in the concept of free will and morality and the part that they play in our legal system. A possible future career that I am looking into is Criminal Law and so this topic will give me a broader understanding.

What are you aiming to find out?
I am aiming to find out whether or not Determinism does undermine the Legal System by discovering how Determinists view blame and our freedom. As by posing the question whether someone was to blame for their crime will heavily affect their punishment, and I am interested to discover how frequently a Determinist argument may be used in court.

For example, to put it briefly, a Hard Determinist would argue that every event is the effect of a previous cause, and our choices are the produce of previous causes. Therefore any freedom we may have is merely an illusion, because in fact our choices have already been mapped out for us, and as a result we cannot have any free will, 'I could not have done otherwise.' So if this is the case it seems that the Hard Determinist cannot be punished as they have proven that we are not to blame for our actions as we did not freely choose to do them. However in assessing this I will be referring to Consequentialism in my EPQ to show that even in a Hard Determinist case blame is carried out - so at this early stage it seems that in this case Determinism does not undermind the Legal System.

What are you planning on producing?
I am planning on producing an essay that delves deeper into the topic of Determinism and looks at it from very different angles, and using this essay to come to my conclusion. I am also going to produce an interactive presentation where I will be using members of the audience in my speech to prove my case.

How will you go about doing this?
I will go about doing this by using views from several different philosophers on Determinism and by studying the Legal System in detail to show where the contrasts arise. I will also be looking at previous Legal cases and using these to illustrate how Determinism may be put into practice in an active trial to give a simple and relateable approach to a difficult topic. I will also be interviewing people at random to gain an insight into their views and setting up votes and polls on a variety of topics relating to my EPQ to use as background research in order to see how it is viewed in society today.