Living Well Without Free Will | Robert Sapolsky, PhD

The Doctor's Art

Most of us take free will for granted — from the biggest of life decisions to choosing an ice cream flavor, we are generally capable of freely deciding how to think and how to behave without outside influence. But Robert Sapolsky believes our decisions cannot be disentangled from our genetics, environment, and neurobiology. In other words, to him, free will does not exist.

Dr. Sapolsky, a neuroscientist and primatologist at Stanford University, is a leading thinker on the biology of stress, human behavior, neurodegenerative diseases, and the science of free will and determinism. He is the author of multiple bestselling books, including Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers (1994), Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst (2017), and Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will (2023). His works have been featured widely in the popular press, from National Geographic to The New York Times.

Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Sapolsky presents his arguments against free will, along the way making detours through chaos and complexity theory, philosophy, ethics, and neuroscience. He shows how subtracting free will from the way culture thinks about crime, mental health, and human development have resulted in more humane health, justice, and educational systems. Finally, we contemplate together what human flourishing even means in the context of a life without free will.

His ideas have profound implications not just on our society, but also on our understanding of human nature, challenging our perceptions and provoking deep reflection on how we navigate the choices in our lives.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

3:08 - How Dr. Sapolsky chose a career straddling both neuroscience and primatology

5:04 - The moment when Dr. Sapolsky realized he did not believe humans have free will

16:16 - How society becomes more humane when free will is factored out

23:29 - The deep implications that free will and determinism could have on criminology

34:13 - How a belief in a lack of free will can negatively affect motivation on a societal scale

43:11 - What does human flourishing look like in a world without free will?

48:07 - The best moments in life in which to utilize this understanding of free will

Dr. Robert Sapolsky has authored numerous publications, a full bibliography of his works can be found here.

Dr. Robert Sapolsky can be found on Instagram at @robert.sapolsky.

Works and past episodes discussed:

What’s Expected of Us by Ted Chiang

Episode 79: Transcendence in the Age of Science | Alan Lightman, PhD

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