At just 14 years old, Robert Sapolsky decided that free will doesn’t exist and he’s been working to prove it ever since.
In his new book, Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will, the celebrated neuroscientist and primatologist argues that we are essentially biological machines, shaped by our genes and environment, with little to no control over what we do.
If that’s true, what does it mean for concepts like blame, hate, praise, love – or the very foundations of morality? Are they also illusions?
Drawing from years of studying baboons in Kenya and unraveling human behavior, Sapolsky joins Imran Garda from his home in California to talk about the forces that truly drive us and whether we have ever really had a choice at all.
00:00 Meet Robert Sapolsky
01:34 Why don’t we have free will?
02:45 Can it be an excuse for bad behaviour?
03:52 On judging and hating others
05:56 Don’t praise, don’t blame
07:59 Taking personal responsibility for our actions
09:08 Nature and nurture
10:35 The heritability of behaviour
11:45 His book Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will
12:09 Studying baboons in Kenya
14:14 Baboons over chimpanzees?
15:56 Activating the brain’s ancient wiring
18:32 Sapolsky’s views on the Gaza war
19:44 How to stop hating someone
20:47 The case of Phineas Gage
24:47 Biological machines, manipulation and caffeine
25:27 The philosophy of Professor Sapolsky
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