Why do hard determinists conclude that people are not morally responsible for their actions?

Hard determinists conclude that people are not morally responsible for their actions because they believe that determinism is true and that it is incompatible with free will.1

The reasoning follows these key points:

• Causal Inevitability: Determinism posits that given the state of the universe at any time and the laws of nature, every subsequent event is causally inevitable. Because human actions are part of the universe, individuals cannot act otherwise than they do.1
• Requirement of Free Will: Moral responsibility is widely understood to require free will—the ability to have acted differently. If an individual could not have helped but perform an action, it is generally agreed that they cannot be held morally responsible for it.2
• The Incompatibility Dilemma: Since hard determinists argue that free will is impossible in a deterministic universe, they conclude that the necessary condition for moral responsibility is never met. Therefore, people are never truly responsible for their actions.12

While some hard determinists accept this as a necessary revision of our intuitive beliefs, others argue that maintaining the concept of moral responsibility remains socially beneficial, even if it is based on a fiction.1