The Responsible Brain

Free Will and Personal Responsibility in the Wake of Neuroscience

Resumo

This article examines the neuroethical problem of free will that consists in explaining how the socially crucial conception of human beings as free and responsible can be combined with neuroscientific findings on human beings and their behaviour. Within neuroscience, the experience of free will has been considered ‘illusory’ by virtue of being (1) a brain construct, or (2) causally determined, or (3) non-consciously initiated. This article analyses these positions and suggests a neurophilosophical view on free will according to which, rather than posing a new threat to our unalienable notions of free will and personal responsibility, neuroscience can offer empirical support for them.