Neuroetica, Neuroscienze e Behavioral Insights. In difesa della libertà cognitiva e delle scelte autonome!

Abstract: Neuroethics, Neuroscience, and Behavioral Insights. Safeguarding Cognitive Freedom and Autonomous Choices!
Are we truly free when we make choices, or are our decisions the product of prewired neural circuits? While neuroscience promises to explain the causes of actions and behaviors, it also raises crucial ethical and legal questions, particularly regarding the reliability of brain-based evidence in criminal trials, its relation to culpability and responsibility, and the risk of reducing every human conduct to a purely biological explanation, overlooking the essential role of emotions and the social context. This analysis aims to shed light on these tensions, showing how neuroethics positions itself between scientific reductionism and the defense of human dignity and mental integrity. The discussion also addresses the issue of bounded rationality and the influence of pre-reflective factors on deliberative cognitive processes. The final proposal seeks to move beyond the abstract figure of the homo juridicus, making use of behavioral insights to outline a legal framework capable of promoting more authentic and conscious freedom of choice.