Is everything we do the product of unconscious brain processes that are beyond our control? If so, what happens to moral and criminal responsibility if a defendant can always argue, ‘my brain made me do it’? And if free will does exist, could other animals possess it too? We bring together a philosopher, a psychiatrist, and a neuroscientist to discuss what recent research into the brain might mean for our understanding of free will.
Matthew Broome is Chair in Psychiatry and Youth Mental Health, University of Birmingham.
Nura Sidarus is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Cognitive Science, Institut Jean Nicod, Ecole Normale Supérieure.
Jonathan Birch is a Fellow, the Forum; Assistant Professor of Philosophy, LSE.
The Forum for European Philosophy (@ForumPhilosophy) is an educational charity that organises a full and varied programme of philosophy and interdisciplinary events in the UK.
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