On the Perception of Merit

A Possible Answer to J. Greene and J. Cohen about Neuroscience and Punishment

Abstract

In this paper I discuss J. Greene and J. Cohen’s claim to the effect that the development of neurocognitive explanations of human behaviour and, above all, the diffusion of those explanations, would have as a consequence the disappearance, in the long term, both of our common sense libertarian intuitions and of the retributivist intuitions that follow from them, given that the practice of attributing merit itself would disappear. I argue against two theses that underlie his approach (the libertarian intuitions of common sense and the ability to modify them). Finally, I examine the consequences that would follow for Greene and Cohen’s own humanitarian motivations for abandoning retributivism if we drop the notions of responsibility and merit.