Conscious will and responsibility

Benjamin Libet, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Lynn Nadel

"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 befor 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 also 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 raise 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...