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      Automaticity, consciousness and moral responsibility

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      Author
      Wigley, S.
      Date
      2007
      Source Title
      Philosophical Psychology
      Print ISSN
      0951-5089
      Volume
      20
      Issue
      2
      Pages
      209 - 225
      Language
      English
      Type
      Article
      Item Usage Stats
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      Abstract
      Cognitive scientists have long noted that automated behavior is the rule, while conscious acts of self-regulation are the exception to the rule. On the face of it, automated actions appear to be immune to moral appraisal because they are not subject to conscious control. Conventional wisdom suggests that sleepwalking exculpates, while the mere fact that a person is performing a well-versed task unthinkingly does not. However, our apparent lack of conscious control while we are undergoing automaticity challenges the idea that there is a relevant moral difference between these two forms of unconscious behavior. In both cases the agent lacks access to information that might help them guide their actions so as to avoid harms. In response, it is argued that the crucial distinction between the automatic agent and the agent undergoing an automatism, such as somnambulism or petit mal epilepsy, lies in the fact that the former can preprogram the activation and interruption of automatic behavior. Given that, it is argued that there is elbowroom for attributing responsibility to automated agents based on the quality of their will.
      Keywords
      Automaticity
      Automatism
      Consciousness
      Illusion of free will
      Responsibility
      Permalink
      http://hdl.handle.net/11693/23506
      Published Version (Please cite this version)
      http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09515080701197122
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      • Department of Philosophy 182
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