{"product_id":"responsible-brains-isbn-9780262549271","title":"Responsible Brains","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn examination of the relationship between the brain and culpability that offers a comprehensive neuroscientific theory of human responsibility.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen we praise, blame, punish, or reward people for their actions, we are holding them responsible for what they have done. Common sense tells us that what makes human beings responsible has to do with their minds and, in particular, the relationship between their minds and their actions. Yet the empirical connection is not necessarily obvious. The “guilty mind” is a core concept of criminal law, but if a defendant on trial for murder were found to have serious brain damage, which brain parts or processes would have to be damaged for him to be considered not responsible, or less responsible, for the crime? What mental illnesses would justify legal pleas of insanity? In \u003ci\u003eResponsible Brains\u003c\/i\u003e, philosophers William Hirstein, Katrina Sifferd, and Tyler Fagan examine recent developments in neuroscience that point to neural mechanisms of responsibility. Drawing on this research, they argue that evidence from neuroscience and cognitive science can illuminate and inform the nature of responsibility and agency. They go on to offer a novel and comprehensive neuroscientific theory of human responsibility.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe authors' core hypothesis is that responsibility is grounded in the brain's prefrontal executive processes, which enable us to make plans, shift attention, inhibit actions, and more. The authors develop the executive theory of responsibility and discuss its implications for criminal law. Their theory neatly bridges the folk-psychological concepts of the law and neuroscientific findings.Preface vii \u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments ix \u003cbr\u003e1 Introduction 1 \u003cbr\u003e2 The Science of Executive Processes 17 \u003cbr\u003e3 Moral Responsibility 43 \u003cbr\u003e4 Criminal Responsibility 71 \u003cbr\u003e5 Consciousness versus the Executive Processes 91 \u003cbr\u003e6 Judgments and Claims of Responsibility 115 \u003cbr\u003e7 Responsible Lives, Responsible Acts 133 \u003cbr\u003e8 Responsibility under Development 155 \u003cbr\u003e9 Responsibility, Capacity, and Insanity 177 \u003cbr\u003e10 Blame, Desert, and Punishment 199 \u003cbr\u003e11 Epilogue 227 \u003cbr\u003eNotes 237 \u003cbr\u003eReferences 253 \u003cbr\u003eName Index 283 \u003cbr\u003eSubject Index 287William Hirstein is Professor of Philosophy at Elmhurst College, Illinois and the author of\u003ci\u003e Brain Fiction: Self-Deception and the Riddle of Confabulation \u003c\/i\u003e(MIT Press).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKatrina L. Sifferd is Professor of Philosophy at Elmhurst College.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTyler K. Fagan is Lecturer in Philosophy at Elmhurst College.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304086229221,"sku":"NP9780262549271","price":50.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262549271.jpg?v=1767735674","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/responsible-brains-isbn-9780262549271","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}