Freedom and ethics: Benjamin Libet’s work

Abstract

A fundamental idea to sustain basic ethical concepts such as autonomy, responsibility, etc., is “liberty”. The determinism/freedom aporia has been present in philosophical tradition since ancient world. However, after the development of neuroscience, it has been argued that freedom is merely an illusion and human beings are neurobiologically determined in our actions. This paper presents the pioneering work of Benjamin Libet on this subject (an approach that used electroencephalography and electromyography), also a critique on Libet interpretations of his results.