Foreword: the neurocognitive turn in law and its epistemological aspects

This introductory chapter focuses on the epistemological aspects of neurolaw, specifically on the problem of the relationship between folk psychology and scientific psychology (understood today as part of the cognitive neuroscience project) in the law. This is a specific theoretical issue afflicting neuro-approaches in general, and more recently neurolaw, which aims to handle the discrepancy between commonsense views of behavior, as today represented within the various legal systems, and scientific views, as offered by contemporary cognitive neuroscience. This epistemological question represents a turning point in the current international debate about neurolaw. In this chapter this question serves to wonder about the epistemological legitimacy and relevance of neurolaw, as it will be described and discussed in other chapters of this volume.