Abstract

ROSAS, ALEJANDRO; CAVIEDES, ESTEBAN; ARCINIEGAS, ALEJANDRA  and  ARCINIEGAS, ANDREA. Utilitarian Decision or Random Decision? Critique of a Thesis Rooted in Cognitive Neuroscience. Ideas y Valores [online]. 2013, vol.62, n.153, pp.179-199. ISSN 0120-0062.

ABSTRACT In their answers to questions regarding "personal moral dilemmas", patients with lesions to the Frontal Cortex -FC- or Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex -vmPFC- display a disposition to directly injure another person in order to save lives, thus revealing a possible lack of empathy. However, their answers are normal when they evaluate behaviors lacking in empathy but without a utilitarian justification. We here defend that those patients suffer from a cognitive deficiency associated with Damasio's somatic marker hypothesis and with value judgments. The article critiques the "utilitarian patient" hypothesis that has become deeply rooted in cognitive neuroscience.

Keywords : cognitive science; deontology; empathy; moral judgment; utilitarianism.

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