How does the neuroscience of decision making bear on our understanding of moral responsibility and free will?

This review considers recent work in neuroscience that has been thought to challenge views of free will. I argue that these experiments do little to directly undermine the belief that we have free will. However, evidence for mechanism and automatic behaviors may cause us to rethink some commonsensical notions of what is required for acting freely.

► Neuroscientific insights should constrain and inform philosophical models. ► We must move beyond thinking about free will in the context of determinism. ► Neurophysiological data accords with psychological models of decision-making. ► There are clear avenues for future neuroscientific research to illuminate volition. ► Capacity, deliberation and consciousness are ripe areas for future research.