Free Will: Dr. Robert Sapolsky and the Persistence of Dogmatic Determinism
How it takes ironically remarkable will power to believe we don’t have free will
If you watch a lot of podcasts you may have encountered Stanford Professor Dr. Robert Sapolsky. He has done the rounds recently since releasing a book called “Determined”, in which he outlines his view that we “don’t have a shred” of free will. Sapolsky is a hard determinist, like many scientists he sees this through the prism of his field, suggesting all our behaviour is caused by prior biological states and causes, be they genetic, hormonal, environmental etc, and that we do not have an ounce of free will in between. On an interview with UK podcast The Rest is Politics, he said:
“Here’s an example, you’ve got two people, they go to a movie, it’s some inspiring movie about some everyday Joe who does something heroic from out of nowhere, one person comes out of the movie changed by the experience, the person’s behaviour changes, they come out and say “wow that was the most inspiring thing I’ve ever seen I’m going to go over, there’s a booth right over there for Amnesty international, and I’m going to give them my life savings.” The second person comes out of the movie changed by the experience, their behaviour changes, they come out and say “that was the most…
