2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Naturalization of the concept of person based on neuroscientific evidence, and its significance in criminal law
| Project/Area Number |
23520009
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Philosophy/Ethics
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| Research Institution | Tohoku University |
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Principal Investigator |
HARA Saku 東北大学, 文学研究科, 准教授 (70463891)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
UTSUMI Tomoko 横浜国立大学, 国際社会科学研究科, 准教授 (10365041)
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| Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha) |
YAMAMOTO Manami 玉川大学, 脳科学研究所, 研究員 (90534719)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2011 – 2013
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| Keywords | 哲学 / 倫理学 / 刑法学 / 神経科学 |
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| Research Abstract |
The purpose of this study was to investigate a wide range of naturalistic theories on person found in the recent philosophical literature, and to clarify their significance in the criminal law. After doing preliminary survey, we decided to concentrate on investigating the significance of emotions in criminal law. Recently, Martha C. Nussbaum, together with Dan M. Kahan, has developed a theory of emotion-based criminal judgment. Therefore, we tried to answer the above research question through interpretation of their theory of criminal judgment. The following is the result of our research. To make their own judicial decisions, lay judges in criminal courts tend to rely heavily on moral intuitions that are often driven by emotions, due to the lack of judicial expertise. However, disgust-driven judgments, which lay judges may sometimes make, must be seen to be inappropriate, because of the dehumanizing effect accompanying disgust.
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