Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Week 7
Joshua Greene & Jonathan Cohen
2004:
For the law, neuroscience changes
nothing and everything
determinism
A theory about the universe: all events
are necessitated by antecedent
conditions together with the laws of
nature
Retributivism
Retributivism is the link between
moral and legal responsibility
It is a central issue in moral philosophy:
it is the view that some human actions
deserve to be punished/rewarded
Retributivism
Retributivism is the link between
moral and legal responsibility
It is a central issue in moral philosophy:
it is the view that some human actions
deserve to be punished/rewarded
Mr. Puppet
Mr Puppet cannot be held fully
responsible for his crimes, if he can be
held responsible for them at all. He is,
perhaps, a man to be feared, and we
would not want to return him to the
streets. But given the fact that forces
beyond his control played a dominant
role in causing him to commit these
crimes, it is hard to think of him as
anything more than a pawn. (pg. 1780)
Mr. Puppet
But what does the law say about Mr
Puppet? The law asks whether or not he
was rational at the time of his misdeeds,
and as far as we know he was. For all we
know, he is psychologically
indistinguishable from the prototypical
guilty criminal, and therefore fully
responsible in the eyes of the law. But,
intuitively, this is not fair. (pg. 1780)