In 2023, Stanford University professor and MacArthur Foundation grant recipient Robert M. Sapolsky published a book that questioned some commonly held beliefs about how our minds work. The subtitle of Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will gives a sense of Sapolsky’s argument — essentially, that we give the concept of free will too much credit for things.
“We’ve got no free will,” Sapolsky told the Los Angeles Times. “Stop attributing stuff to us that isn’t there.”
In an interview with The New York Times around the release of his book — one where he used the ominous-sounding phrase “biological machines” several times — Sapolsky explained his theory. Essentially, it’s less about the specific decisions we make and more the different factors that contributed to that moment. “Where did that intent come from? That’s what happened a minute before, in the years before, and everything in between,” he explained.
Unsurprisingly, Sapolsky’s book and its thesis were not met with universal acceptance. In an article for The Conversation, Adam Piovarchy of the University of Notre Dame Australia argued that Sapolsky “doesn’t actually present any argument for why his conception of free will is correct.”
The existence, or lack thereof, of free will remains the subject of much inquiry in the scientific community. Earlier this year, in an opinion piece published by Scientific American, Aaron Schurger, Adina Roskies and Uri Maoz pushed back against concluding that free will is a myth. “Neuroscience, we conclude, has not disproven conscious free will,” the trio wrote.
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The bestselling author of “The Comfort Crisis” names the small, intentional challenges that lead to a stronger body and sharper mindEven now, scientists are continuing to explore questions surrounding consciousness and free will. Earlier this year, an international trio of scientists published a paper that delved into both free will and quantum physics. “You have to look at what the experiments say,” one of the paper’s authors, Adán Cabello, told El País last month. “Someone might be repulsed by the lack of free will, but it’s a logical possibility. So, as such, we’re going to study it scientifically.”
Free will is a hotly debated subject, whether you’re a quantum researcher or a moral philosopher. And while research into the nature and purpose of free will continues, it’s unlikely that any one paper or study will resolve these questions to universal satisfaction.
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