{"id":116851,"date":"2023-10-31T14:44:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T18:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=116851"},"modified":"2023-11-03T14:45:59","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T18:45:59","slug":"there-is-no-free-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/there-is-no-free-will\/","title":{"rendered":"There Is No Free Will, According to This Scientist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Do people have free will? How is the belief in free will harmful to society?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After 40 years of study, neurologist Robert Sapolsky says there is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/no-free-will\/\">no free will<\/a>. He lays out what a world that doesn&#8217;t believe in free will would look like, and how it would impact the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are the arguments for and against free will, and why Sapolsky thinks believing in free will is harmful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-one-scientist-s-answer-to-an-ancient-philosophical-question\"><strong>One Scientist\u2019s Answer to an Ancient Philosophical Question<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Do people truly have free will? It\u2019s a question that <a href=\"https:\/\/plato.stanford.edu\/entries\/freewill\/#AnciMediPeri:~:text=we%20find%20significant%20discussion%20in%20Plato%20and%20Aristotle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Plato and Aristotle discussed<\/a> millennia ago, and that philosophers have been debating ever since. Now, biologist and neurologist <a href=\"https:\/\/profiles.stanford.edu\/robert-sapolsky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Robert Sapolsky<\/a> says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/science\/story\/2023-10-17\/stanford-scientist-robert-sapolskys-decades-of-study-led-him-to-conclude-we-dont-have-free-will-determined-book\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">there is no free will<\/a>. With that statement, he joins the ranks of <a href=\"https:\/\/quod.lib.umich.edu\/e\/ergo\/12405314.0003.023\/--free-will-skepticism-and-the-question-of-creativity?rgn=main;view=fulltext\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">free will skeptics<\/a>, who argue that there\u2019s no such thing as making an independent decision; instead, what we do is the result of countless different influences affecting us at that moment. In other words, free will skeptics say that <strong>our brains are like immensely complex biological computers, and what we believe to be our own choices are actually predetermined outputs.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-is-free-will\">What Is Free Will?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In short, free will is the ability to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/freewill\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">make purely voluntary decisions<\/a>; in other words,<strong> free will is the power to make decisions that aren\u2019t forced on us by circumstances.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the question of free will asks: If we turned back time and put that same person in that exact same situation again, would they take the same book? Would they <em>always <\/em>take the same book, no matter how many times we did so? In other words, <strong>was taking that specific book a matter of free will, or was it the inevitable outcome of their entire life up to that moment?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-some-arguments-for-free-will\"><strong>Some Arguments For Free Will<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>We<\/strong> <strong>must have free will because we\u2019re aware of making choices<\/strong>.<\/li><li><strong>Free will is necessary for ethics and laws. <\/strong>If we don\u2019t have free will, then <a href=\"https:\/\/ethics.org.au\/what-is-the-definition-of-free-will-ethics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">we can\u2019t be held responsible for our actions<\/a>. <\/li><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/quantum-mechanics-theory\/\">Quantum mechanics<\/a> proves that free will is real. <\/strong>Quantum mechanics demonstrates that many events aren\u2019t predetermined and knowable, but instead <a href=\"https:\/\/iai.tv\/articles\/quantum-mechanics-and-the-return-of-free-will-tim-andersen-auid-2475#:~:text=there%20are%20probable%20states%20that%20have%20the%20same%20past%20up%20until%20a%20point%20t%20and%20then%20a%20choice%20is%20made%20and%20a%20non%2Ddeterministic%20path%20is%20followed.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">must be expressed as probabilities<\/a> that those events will happen. Applied to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/marketing-freebies\/\">the concept of free<\/a> will, this means that a person\u2019s actions aren\u2019t certain.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-some-arguments-against-free-will\"><strong>Some Arguments Against Free Will<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>All events in the universe, including human actions, are the inevitable results of all the events preceding them. <\/strong>This is called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/determinism\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">determinism<\/a>.<\/li><li><strong>\u201cFree will\u201d is a nebulous concept that we use to fill gaps in our understanding of human behavior. <\/strong> Sapolsky himself <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/behave\/1-page-summary#what-about-free-will\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">makes this argument<\/a> in his book <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/behave\/1-page-summary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Behave<\/em><\/a><em>.\u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><strong>We already know that people\u2019s thoughts and actions can be manipulated. <\/strong>Influences such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.verywellmind.com\/how-does-propaganda-work-5224974\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">political propaganda<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychiatry.org\/patients-families\/ptsd\/what-is-ptsd#:~:text=child%20abuse%20cases.-,Symptoms%20and%20Diagnosis,-Symptoms%20of%20PTSD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">psychological conditions<\/a> can drastically change how people behave. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-if-free-will-isn-t-real\"><strong>What if Free Will Isn\u2019t Real?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Although Sapolsky has spent some 40 years developing his theory that free will doesn\u2019t exist, he\u2019s not just interested in proving it; he\u2019s equally invested in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/10\/16\/science\/free-will-sapolsky.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">implications of a world without free will<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>According to Sapolsky, accepting that free will isn\u2019t real will lay the groundwork for a more fair and just society. <\/strong>He argues that people are constantly being blamed and punished for things that they have no control over. By abandoning the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/free-will-myth\/\">myth of free will<\/a>, we\u2019ll stop viewing them as bad people who need to be punished, and instead see them as damaged people who need to be helped. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do people have free will? How is the belief in free will harmful to society? After 40 years of study, neurologist Robert Sapolsky says there is no free will. He lays out what a world that doesn&#8217;t believe in free will would look like, and how it would impact the criminal justice system. Here are the arguments for and against free will, and why Sapolsky thinks believing in free will is harmful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":116855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,160],"tags":[727],"class_list":["post-116851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philosophy","category-science","tag-articles","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>There Is No Free Will, According to This Scientist - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Neurologist Robert Sapolsky asserts that there is no free will. 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