Mechanical Choices : The Responsibility of the Human Machine - Michael S. Moore

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Mechanical Choices

The Responsibility of the Human Machine

By: Michael S. Moore

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Hardcover | 22 May 2020

At a Glance

Hardcover
616 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
24.13 x 16.51 x 4.45

Hardcover

$237.75

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Mechanical Choices details the intimate connection that exists between morality and law: the morality we use to blame others for their misdeeds and the criminal law that punishes them for these misdeeds. This book shows how both law and morality presuppose the accuracy of common sense, a centuries-old psychology that defines people as rational agents who make honorable choices and act for just reasons. It then shows how neuroscience is commonly taken to challenge these fundamental psychological assumptions. Such challenges--four in number--are distinguished from each other by the different neuroscientific facts from which they arise: the fact that human choices are caused by brain events; the fact that those choices don't cause the actions that are their objects but are only epiphenomenal to those choices; the fact that those choices are identical to certain physical events in the brain; and the fact that human subjects are quite fallible in their knowledge of what they are doing
and why. The body of this book shows how such challenges are either based on faulty facts or misconceived as to the relevance of such facts to responsibility. The book ends with a detailed examination of the neuroscience of addiction, an examination which illustrates how neuroscience can help rather than challenge both law and morality in their quest to accurately define excuses from responsibility.

Industry Reviews

"Mechanical Choices has much to offer...those interested in the base assumptions of extant criminal law and a detailed compatibilist account of moral responsibility will reap great intellectual dividends by investing their time in Mechanical Choices." -- Andreas Kuersten, Georgetown University Medical Center, Journal of Moral Philosophy "The book is well worth a read. Moore truly does an admirable job of teasing apart different arguments and "challenges" one finds in neuroscience-based attacks on moral responsibility and retributivism and shows how each can be met. He does prove the negative thesis that neither folk-psychological ideas about agency and responsibility nor retributivist criminal justice depend on disproven claims." -- Sofia M. I. Jeppsson, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice "Mechanical Choices is a monumental book, rich with ideas." -- Alex Kaiserman, Criminal Law and Philosophy "Mechanical Choices is a monumental book, rich with ideas." -- Alex Kaiserman, Criminal Law and Philosophy

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