Texas A&M's 3rd Annual International Virtual Conference of Philosophy (Published Proceedings)

Response to Aidan Peters Kate Girvin Texas A&M University In this paper, Peters uses neuroscientist Giulio Tononi’s Information Integration Theory of Consciousness (IIT) to defend the claim that consciousness is a “subjective experience” found within a deterministic, physical world (Peters 2022). Using the premises in Tononi’s cognitive theory, Peters postulates a causal link between the subjective, conscious world and objective, physical world to identify an alternative solution to crime and punishment, particularly its effects on the moral agent.

Instead of enforcing a retributive model of punishment, Peters advocates for a radically empathetic approach to crime rooted in rehabilitative justice.

While Peters’ rehabilitative approach to crime and punishment is a potential solution to addressing moral wrongdoings, it fails to consider cases of moral luck, a term coined by philosopher Thomas Nagel, which introduces chance into moral evaluations. Briefly put, moral luck describes the unpredictability between luck and moral accountability which would assign a moral agent moral blame or praise for an action or its consequences, independent of any alleged free will the moral agent possessed. For example, two people find themselves texting and driving on their way to work. One person successfully makes it to work without an accident, while the other distracted driver hits and injures a pedestrian. Both moral agents in this scenario arguably violated a moral law, yet only one found himself in a situation where is more culpable. This thought experiment summarizes the problem with moral luck; society has a tendency to apply varying degrees of moral blame for identical behaviors, actions, or intentions based on their outcome.

My critique primarily addresses Peters’ application of IIT to crimes with an ethical component. In the final section of his essay, Peters proffers a solution to assumed causal direction that quantifies subjective information with objective information for the moral agent. In doing so, he brings attention to crime, specifically crimes committed with the influence of “social forces like poverty, systemic racism, etc.”

(Peters 2022). Peters argues that a rehabilitative approach to moral wrongdoings could eliminate stigmas surrounding criminals who are compelled to commit crimes based on the social factors by which they are encompassed. He says a rehabilitative 35