Abstract
While the previous chapter considered empathy and compassion, this chapter looks at some reasons for why empathy and compassion sometimes fail to prevail. What could be the reasons that some dismiss or even lack empathy? Furthermore, where does free will come in? Is there something like free will or is free will always relative to a specific factor? Is free will equal to being free? In my opinion having free will and being free is not entirely the same. For instance, a drug addict may have freely chosen to start taking drugs, but after some time it is the drug that chooses the addict who is no longer a free person. Take the following example. I am completely free to choose what I want to do today, I may choose to continue writing on my book or I may choose to do something entirely different. However, I am not free from my duty to submit the book in time. Then, of course, one could try to refrain from making a choice, thinking in terms of ‘what has to happen also happens’. However, that will not work, one will end up making a choice because “[w]e cannot think away our free will” (Searle 2007: 43). However, that we cannot think away our free will does not mean that we have absolute free will. In turn, this does not mean that free will is an illusion. As Searle expresses, “free will is a genuine feature of the world” (Searle 2007: 58). Therefore, it needs to have neurological correlations. The choices we make cannot be detached from our neurological set-up. This implies that human free will to do good or bad is at least partly hardwired in the brain.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
My translation from Danish.
- 2.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-religion/accessed 5 February 2016.
- 3.
The difference between Kant’s moral philosophy and Utilitarianism is that Kant sees the good will as an end while Utilitarianists see the good will as a means, i.e. in a derivative sense.
- 4.
Kant does not believe in the doctrine that Jesus Christ took away the guilt of previous evil (vicarious atonement) but argues that we should see Christ’s actions as an example (exemplary atonement).
- 5.
Perhaps this note is unnecessary but Kant did not have access to psychological or neuroscientific studies on moral behavior as we have today.
- 6.
Of course, a lack or loss of empathy and an increase of violence may also be caused by drug abuse.
- 7.
The amygdala which is located in the middle part of the temporal lobes is one of the oldest structures in the brain and controls and mediates virtually all high-order emotional functions. However, as argued above, one should be aware of the fact that no neural activity stands alone. Amongst other neural functions the amygdala is connected to frontal lobe activity which is maintained to be responsible for higher cognitive functions. Epileptogenic focus is the area of the cerebral cortex (the outer portion of the brain) responsible for causing epileptic seizures.
- 8.
Also in the superior temporal sulcus, the anterior insular, and the areas of the premotor cortex. Both the cognitive (frontal) and affective (limbic) processes are interwoven in neural networks that participate in mediating the empathic response (high-level empathy).
- 9.
fMRI studies on the perception of pain in others also showed that there is a difference in neural activity when evaluating the pain of others compared to evaluating one’s own pain.
- 10.
I have already shown the importance of the amygdala, the frontal and temporal cortex and the insula for empathy to emerge. The striatum, or neostriatum or striat nucleus is a subcortical part of the forebrain and very significant for the reward system.
- 11.
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/jonestown1.html accessed 15 February 2016.
- 12.
We are not discussing the sect-leaders, only the members.
- 13.
http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/marchapril/feature/the-trial-hannah-arendt accessed 21 Aug. 2014.
References
Aargaard, M. 2007. Berglinske, Thursday 8 November, 09:02.
Adolphs, Ralph, Daniel Tranel, Hanna Damasio, and Antonio R. Damasio. 1995. Fear and the human Amygdala. Journal of Neuroscience 15: 5879–5891.
Aharoni, E., W. Sinntt-Armstrong, and K.A. Keihl. 2012. Can psychopathic offenders discern moral wrongs? A neo look at the moral/conventional distinction. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 121: 484–497.
Anderberg, Thomas. 1997. Guds moral: En essä om lidandets och ondskans problem. Nora: Nya Doxa.
Aniskiewicz, Albert S. 1979. Autonomic component of vicarious conditioning and psychopathy. Journal of Clinical Psychology 35: 60–67.
Arendt, Hannah. 2006. Eichmann in Jerusalem. A report on the Babality of evil. New York: Penguin Classics.
Beier, Matthias. 2006. On the psychology of violent christian fundamentalism: Fighting to matter ultimately. Psychoanalytic Review 93(2): 301–327.
Bretherton, Inge, J. Fritz, C. Zahn-Waxler, and D. Ridgeway. 1986. The acquisition and development of emotion language: A functionalist perspective. Child Development 57: 529–548.
Dawkins, Richard. 2001. How has the world changed? The Guardian. Interview
Decety, Jean. 2014. The neuroevolution of empathy and caring for others: Why it matter for morality. In New frontiers in social neuroscience, ed. Jean Decety and Yves Christen, 127–152. Heidenberg/New York/Dordrecht/London: Springer.
Decety, Jean, and Philip L. Jackson. 2007. The functional architecture of human empathy. Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews 3(2): 71–100.
Fieldman, George. 2003. Evolution and evil. Perspectives on Evil and Human Wickedness 1(3): 122–132.
Goleman, Daniel. 1997. Emotional intelligence, why it can matter more than IQ. New York: Bantam Books.
Harris, S.M. 2006. The end of faith. London: Simon & Schuster.
Hobbes, Thomas. 1654. Treatise of ‘Liberty and Necessity’. Available on http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1223571.files/hobbes%20on%20liberty.pdf. Assessed 8 Feb 2016.
Jones, Kathleen, B. 2014. The trial of Hannah Arendt. Humanities 35(2). http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/marchapril/feature/the-trial-hannah-arendt. Accessed 21 Aug 2014.
Kant, Immanuel. 1960. Religion within the limits of reason alone. New York: The Open Court Publishing Co.
Kant, Immanuel. 2014. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-religion/. Accessed 5 Feb 2016.
Pink, Thomas. 2004. Free will. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Proctor, James, D. 2005. Frans de Waal and Evan Thompson, Interviewed by James Proctor. Journal of Consciousness Studies 12(7):38–54.
Reyes, Hermán. 2007. The worst scars are in the mind: Psychological torture. International Review 89(867): 591–616.
Runehov, Anne L.C. 2010. Why evil will not go away: A philosophical analysis of the complexity of the problem of evil. In SSTh XII: Studies in science & theology, eds. Dirk Evers, Antje Jackelén and Taede A. Smedes, 325–344. Tübingen: Forum Scientiarum.
Searle, John R. 2007. Freedom & neurobiology. Reflecting on free will, language and political power. New York/Chichester: Columbia University Press.
Shamay-Tsoory, Simon G., Rachel Tomer, B.D. Berger, D. Goldsher and J. Aharon-Peretz. 2005. The neural correlates of understanding the other’s distress: A positron emission tomography investigation of accurate empathy. NeuroImage 27(2);468–472.
Shaw, P., E.J. Lawrence, C. Radbourne, J. Bramham, C.E. Polkey, and A.S. David. 2004. The impact of early and late damage to the human amygdala on ‘theory of mind’ reasoning. Brain 127: 1535–1548.
Sprengelmeyer, R., A.W. Young, U. Schroeder, P.G. Grossenbacher, J. Federlein and T. Buttner. 1999. Knowing no fear. Proceedings of the Royal Society (Series B: Biology), 266:2451–2456.
Thompson, Evan. 2001. Empathy and consciousness. Journal of Conscious Studies 8(5–7): 1–32.
Wiser, James L. 1983. Political philosophy: A history of the search for order. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall Inc.
Zangwill, Nick. 2006. Explaining human cruelty. Behavior and Brain Sciences 29: 245–246.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Runehov, A.L.C. (2016). Free Will, Responsibility and Moral Evil. In: The Human Being, the World and God. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44392-8_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44392-8_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-44390-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-44392-8
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)