Gregg D. Caruso is Professor of Philosophy at SUNY Corning, Visiting Fellow at the New College of the Humanities (NCH London), and Honorary Professor of Philosophy at Macquarie University. He is also Co-Director of the Justice Without Retribution Network housed at the University of Aberdeen School of Law. His research focuses on free will, moral responsibility, punishment, philosophy of law, jurisprudence, social and political philosophy, moral philosophy, philosophy of mind, moral psychology, and neurolaw. His books include Rejecting Retributivism: Free Will, Punishment, and Criminal Justice (2021), Just Deserts: Debating Free Will (w/Daniel C. Dennett) (2021), Free Will and Consciousness: A Determinist Account of the Illusion of Free Will (2012), Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Responsibility (2013), Science and Religion: 5 Questions (2014), Neuroexistentialism: Meaning, Morals, and Purpose in the Age of Neuroscience (co-edited w/Owen Flanagan); and Free Will Skepticism in Law and Society (co-edited w/Elizabeth Shaw and Derk Pereboom). http://www.greggcaruso.com/
Lyrics to the song that was inspired by the interview:
YOU ARE THE AVERAGE
Careful of the friends you have
Remember you can choose
You may not like their attitudes
But in time you'll share their views
Everything gets past around
From attributes to vice
If you accept their company
You'll soon take their advice
You are the average
Of the five people
With whom you spend most of the time
You are the average
You only know what you've been taught
You think your culture's thoughts
You look around the place you work
With an expression of disgust
At people who you'll never be
There's no one you can trust
But take a look from a little bit up
You already look the same
You're blending in quite perfectly
You fit inside the frame
You fit inside the frame
You are the average
Of the five people
With whom you spend most of the time
You are the average
You only know what you've been taught
You think your culture's thoughts
Even you ambitions
What you want from life
Can be enabled or destroyed
By your husband or your wife
Your friends can help you be a better person
Or lead you on the path to sin
You might think you can rise above it
But in time you will sink in
In time you will sink in
You are the average
Of the five people
With whom you spend most of the time
You are the average
You only know what you've been taught
You think your culture's thoughts