El derecho : entre el determinismo y el libre albedrío.

Abstract

The neurosciences are a set of disciplines dedicated to the study of the nervous system, mainly the brain. Over time, many studies have been developed regarding this interest. In the 1980s Libet and later Haynes performed experiments that have been central in this subject, because they found that before taking a decision, brain activity is detected, which indicates determinism in our actions.The philosophical doctrine of determinism support that people are pre-determined due to previous causes which leads to predict future behavior, eliminating the idea of the existence of chance in the cause-effect chain. In this way, neuroscientists argue whether the existence of determinism conditions the existence of free will. The idea that, biologically, people do not freely make decisions interests the law since it affects free will and could not be attributed responsibility to the subject, as you do not have the ability to choose your actions and thoughts, therefore it would not fit responsibility for the subject and, if there is no responsibility, you cannot impute guilt, in criminal law. Some think that the idea of the absence of freedom affects the custodial sentence because it would not help in any way the rehabilitation of the human being, since the behavior of the active subject would derive from something alien to his will. Then, the possibility that people are not free to decide and act would significantly affect the law.