Il fantasma della libertà. Sulle conseguenze politiche del naturalismo

While countless studies examine the outcomes on ethical themes of the neuroscientific research on liberty, in this paper I intend to focus on the political (broadly construed) consequences of such research. Freedom is at the heart of contemporary political practices and discourses, as it is almost the only axiological reference surviving. The thesis I want to argue for, is that if in ethics are possible some maneuvers that, relying on the various conceptions of freedom, preserve prima facie its viability even accepting the extreme versions of neuroethical determinism, in politics these efforts appear far less feasible, because here the sense of freedom is characterized by values of autonomy, authenticity, self-expression, which are under attack by these forms of determinism. If this thesis is well-founded, it hints at a possible short circuit between these two contemporary ideologies, i.e. neuroscientific determinism and subjective self-determination.