Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-3-2015
Abstract
This article is based on the author’s Barrock Lecture in Criminal Law presented at the Marquette University Law School. The central thesis is that the folk psychology that underpins criminal responsibility is correct and that our commonsense understanding of agency and responsibility and the legitimacy of criminal justice generally are not imperiled by contemporary discoveries in the various sciences, including neuroscience and genetics. These sciences will not revolutionize criminal law, at least not anytime soon, and at most they may make modest contributions to legal doctrine, practice, and policy. Until there are conceptual or scientific breakthroughs, this is my story and I’m sticking to it.
Keywords
Criminal law, neurosciences, philosophy of mind, culpability, excuse, mitigation, behavioral causation, compulsion, mental states, mens rea, intention, libertarian free will, causal theory of action, compatibilism
Publication Title
Marquette Law Review
Repository Citation
Morse, Stephen J., "Criminal Law and Common Sense: An Essay on the Perils and Promise of Neuroscience" (2015). All Faculty Scholarship. 1609.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/1609
Included in
Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms Commons, Criminal Law Commons, Criminal Procedure Commons, Law and Philosophy Commons, Law and Psychology Commons, Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons, Medical Jurisprudence Commons, Neurosciences Commons, Philosophy of Mind Commons, Public Law and Legal Theory Commons
Publication Citation
99 Marq. L. Rev. 39 (2015)