Regarding my earlier question about people just doing the best that they can, might the environment play a big part in a person’s bad behavior?  For example, let us suppose a person who grows up in poverty, oppressed, and hated by others.  This fills him with dread and hatred.  When he then acts badly (let us say he murders an innocent person), is he truly responsible for this misbehavior, given how the environment has beaten him down?

Your thinking is too narrow, what philosophers call reductionistic, by looking exclusively at the environment.  I do not disagree that the environment played a part, even a large part, in this person’s rage.  Yet, is there now one and only one response that can be made: murder?  No.  This person has many options including seeking therapy, talking with family members, approaching the person at whom he may be furious, and if a person of faith, he could pray for temperance and restraint.  The environment does not automatically pull a string requiring hurtful behavior.  He still has his free will to choose his responses to the environmental repression.

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