Conscious Will and Responsibility: A Tribute to Benjamin Libet
Conscious Will and Responsibility: A Tribute to Benjamin Libet
Chauncey Stillman Professor of Practical Ethics in the Philosophy Department and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University; Co-director of the MacArthur Foundation Law and Neuroscience Project
Regents Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science
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Abstract
We all seem to think that we do the acts we do because we consciously choose to do them. This commonsense view is thrown into dispute by Benjamin Libet's eyebrow-raising experiments, which seem to suggest that conscious will occurs not before but after the start of brain activity that produces physical action. Libet's striking results are often claimed to undermine traditional views of free will and moral responsibility, and to have practical implications for criminal justice. His work has also stimulated a flurry of further fascinating scientific research—including findings in psychology by Dan Wegner and in neuroscience by John–Dylan Haynes—that raises novel questions about whether conscious will plays any causal role in action. Critics respond that both commonsense views of action and traditional theories of moral and legal responsibility, as well as free will, can survive the scientific onslaught of Libet and his progeny. To further this lively debate, this book discusses whether our conscious choices really cause our actions, and what the answers to that question mean for how we view ourselves and how we should treat each other.
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Front Matter
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Introduction
Benjamin Libet
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1
Do We Have Free Will?
Benjamin Libet
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2
Why Libet’s Studies Don’t Pose a Threat to Free Will
Adina L. Roskies
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3
Libet on Free Will: Readiness Potentials, Decisions, and Awareness
Alfred R. Mele
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4
Are Voluntary Movements Initiated Preconsciously? The Relationships between Readiness Potentials, Urges, and Decisions
Susan Pockett andSuzanne C. Purdy
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5
Do We Really Know What We Are Doing? Implications of Reported Time of Decision for Theories of Volition
William P. Banks andEve A. Isham
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6
Volition: How Physiology Speaks to the Issue of Responsibility
Mark Hallett
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7
What Are Intentions?
Elisabeth Pacherie andPatrick Haggard
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8
Beyond Libet: Long-term Prediction of Free Choices from Neuroimaging Signals
John-Dylan Haynes
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9
Forward Modeling Mediates Motor Awareness
Francesca Carota and others
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10
Volition and the Function of Consciousness
Tashina L. Graves and others
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11
Neuroscience, Free Will, and Responsibility
Deborah Talmi andChris D. Frith
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12
Bending Time to One’s Will
Jeffrey P. Ebert andDaniel M. Wegner
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13
Prospective Codes Fulfilled: A Potential Neural Mechanism of Will
Wheatley Thalia andE. Looser Christine
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14
The Phenomenology of Agency and the Libet Results
Terry Horgan
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15
The Threat of Shrinking Agency and Free Will Disillusionism
Thomas Nadelhoffer
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16
Libet and the Criminal Law’s Voluntary Act Requirement
Gideon Yaffe
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17
Criminal and Moral Responsibility and the Libet Experiments
Larry Alexander
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18
Libet’s Challenge(s) to Responsible Agency
Michael S. Moore
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19
Lessons from Libet
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
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End Matter
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