RT Article
T1 Consciousness and Moral Responsibility: Skeptical Challenges and Theological Reflections
JF Zygon
VO 56
IS 3
SP 641
OP 665
A1 Visala, Aku
LA English
PB Wiley-Blackwell
YR 2021
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1771798955
AB Some philosophers and scientists have argued that we humans cannot be held morally responsible for anything. Invoking results of the neurosciences and the cognitive sciences, they argue that humans lack the kind of conscious control and awareness required for moral responsibility. For theological ethics and Christian theology as a whole, moral responsibility is indispensable. I will begin by outlining some empirical results that are invoked in support of moral responsibility skepticism. I will, then, examine the subsequent discussion and the question why conscious awareness is central to moral responsibility. Consciousness contributes to morally relevant control over action in multiple ways. I will briefly examine some accounts of conscious control that are resistant to the skeptical challenge. Although the empirical results might lead us to revise the degree and range of conscious control, there seems to be enough of it to ground many everyday practices of responsibility. I will conclude the article with some theological reflections.
K1 Self
K1 Psychology
K1 Neuroscience
K1 Moral Responsibility
K1 Free Will
K1 Consciousness
K1 Cognitive Science
DO 10.1111/zygo.12694