The controversial legacy of Benjamin Libet. Free will skeptics and their critics on the importance of Libet-type experiments in the free will and responsibility debate
To most legal scholars free will is an indispensable philosophical assumption underlying our penal law system. Since the 1980s Libet-type experiments (LT) aim to criticize this assumption by showing that unconscious brain processes instead of conscious and deliberative thoughts actually initiate our decisions. Here, after summarizing the main findings, we review three branches of criticism: (a) methodological considerations, (b) objections made by philosophy of science, and (c) metaphysical remarks relating to moral and legal consequences. At the end of this critical review we discuss the possible impact of these neuropsychological investigations on the foundations of penal law.