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Conscious Will and Responsibility: A Tribute to Benjamin Libet

Online ISBN:
9780199864911
Print ISBN:
9780195381641
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Conscious Will and Responsibility: A Tribute to Benjamin Libet

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (ed.),
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
(ed.)

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

Duke University
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Lynn Nadel (ed.)
Lynn Nadel
(ed.)

Regents Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science

University of Arizona
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Published:
24 November 2010
Online ISBN:
9780199864911
Print ISBN:
9780195381641
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

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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