Neuroscientific determinism could erode moral responsibility depending on theory scope

Evidence

Whether or not a neuroscientific view will erode moral responsibility depends on the scope of the theorizing and the types of experimentation it spawns. In a stimulus-driven, bottom-up view, human behavior is automatically activated by neuronal processes outside one’s awareness and control, with thoughts being functionless by-products. In this line of theorizing, it is pointless to hold people responsible for what is beyond their awareness and control. Recall the distinction between understanding how biological machinery works in producing behavior and how biological machinery is orchestrated agentically for diverse purposes. To use an analogy, knowing how the laws of chemistry and physics apply to how a television set produces images does not explain the endless variety of programs it transmits. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 332

Whether or not a neuroscientific view will erode moral responsibility depends on the scope of the theorizing and the types of experimentation it spawns. In a stimulus-driven, bottom-up view, human behavior is automatically activated by neuronal processes outside one’s awareness and control, with thoughts being functionless by-products. In this line of theorizing, it is pointless to hold people responsible for what is beyond their awareness and control. Recall the distinction between understanding how biological machinery works in producing behavior and how biological machinery is orchestrated agentically for diverse purposes. To use an analogy, knowing how the laws of chemistry and physics apply to how a television set produces images does not explain the endless variety of programs it transmits. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 332

Categorization

• XREF: Directly engages the free will vs. neuroscience debate — connects to work by Sam Harris and to the Compatibilist tradition; also the mechanistic-orchestration tension echoes the author’s agentic view set up earlier in this book. — connects to: Scientific fields’ deterministic stance leaves philosophy to defend apologetic free will — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2554
• DEFINE: Clear statement of the agentic-versus-reductionist dispute Bandura targets throughout — useful to pin the book’s core stakes precisely.
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 332