✳flâneur — a map of the web's best reading

Robert Sapolsky is Wrong

quillette.com · 3,183 words · saved by 1 readers

A review of Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will by Robert Sapolsky, 528 pages, Penguin (October 2023) In Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will, Robert Sapolsky argues that free will does not exist, and explores how he thinks society should change in light of that conclusion. Sapolsky is a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University, known for his studies of hormones and behavior in wild baboons. In this new book, he makes an effort to address several different ways in which others have proposed that free will could be real, despite the laws of nature acting on our physical brains. But in his efforts to cover the bases, Sapolsky fails to offer an original argument supporting his claim that free will is not real. Instead he serves up a partial and rewarmed version of the argument made by Bertrand Russell in the 1940s. Sapolsky ornaments the argument with findings from the biological sciences, which he admits do not prove his intended point. In 1946, Be

Sign up for Quillette Sydney. London. Toronto. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. A review of Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will by Robert Sapolsky, 528 pages, Penguin (October 2023) In Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will , Robert Sapolsky argues that free will does not exist, and explores how he thinks society should change in light of that conclusion. Sapolsky is a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University, known for his studies of hormones and behavior in wild baboons. In this new book, he ma

Explore this link on the map →

related reading