Professor Hans Kelsen påpekar i ”Foundations of Democracy”, publicerad i Ethics, en logisk spänning hos många som utgår från att människor har en fri vilja:

To attach punishment or reward to human behavior does not only not exclude the causal determination of this behavior but necessarily presupposes the possibility of such determination. For punishment is attached to certain behavior because it is supposed that man will refrain from such behavior out of fear of the punishment; and reward is attached to certain behavior because it is supposed that man will behave in this way out of the wish to merit the reward. If man’s behavior, and that means, in the last analysis, his will, were not determinable by definite causes, a normative order regulating his behavior by attaching punishment or reward to it and thus establishing his responsibility would be meaningless.

Bertrand Russell var inne på en liknande tankegång.