Vol. 37 No. 2 (2017): Ethics, Law and Cognitive Science
Articles

Responsibility and Control in a Neuroethical Perspective

Elisabetta Sirgiovanni
Center for Bioethics New York University

Published 2017-12-21

Keywords

  • responsibility,
  • control,
  • unconscious,
  • neuroethics,
  • legal,
  • ...More
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How to Cite

Responsibility and Control in a Neuroethical Perspective. (2017). Teoria. Rivista Di Filosofia, 37(2), 159-174. https://doi.org/10.4454/teoria.v37i2.24

Abstract

Folk ethical theories presupposed by prevailing moral theories and current legal systems tend to identify a close link between responsibility and conscious control. They generally claim that we can hold an agent responsible for outcomes of actions over which s/he exercises a certain degree of conscious control. In the last few decades, however, cognitive neuroscience has offered evidence about unconscious control processes and self-deceptive attributions of control, the so-called Frail Control Hypothesis. This hypothesis threatens the common notion of responsibility itself. I will consider possible solutions to the neuroscientific threat and discuss objections to all of them. Then, I will provide some suggestions for building a neuroethical account of responsibility that unifies the benefits of the different solutions but takes their limitations into consideration.