Virtual Event: Robert M. Sapolsky

Harvard Book Store, the Harvard University Division of Science, and the Harvard Library welcome ROBERT M. SAPOLSKY—recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant”, professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University, and author of Behave, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, and A Primate's Memoir—for a discussion of his new book Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will. He will be joined in conversation by experimental psychologist, neuroscientist, and philosopher JOSHUA GREENE—professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University.  

Ticketing

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About Determined

Robert Sapolsky’s Behave, his now classic account of why humans do good and why they do bad, pointed toward an unsettling conclusion: We may not grasp the precise marriage of nature and nurture that creates the physics and chemistry at the base of human behavior, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Now, in Determined, Sapolsky takes his argument all the way, mounting a brilliant (and in his inimitable way, delightful) full-frontal assault on the pleasant fantasy that there is some separate self telling our biology what to do.

Determined offers a marvelous synthesis of what we know about how consciousness works—the tight weave between reason and emotion and between stimulus and response in the moment and over a life. One by one, Sapolsky tackles all the major arguments for free will and takes them out, cutting a path through the thickets of chaos and complexity science and quantum physics, as well as touching ground on some of the wilder shores of philosophy. He shows us that the history of medicine is in no small part the history of learning that fewer and fewer things are somebody’s “fault”; for example, for centuries we thought seizures were a sign of demonic possession. Yet, as he acknowledges, it’s very hard, and at times impossible, to uncouple from our zeal to judge others and to judge ourselves. Sapolsky applies the new understanding of life beyond free will to some of our most essential questions around punishment, morality, and living well together. By the end, Sapolsky argues that while living our daily lives recognizing that we have no free will is going to be monumentally difficult, doing so is not going to result in anarchy, pointlessness, and existential malaise. Instead, it will make for a much more humane world.

Praise for Determined

“Sapolsky’s decades of experience studying the effects of the interplay of genes and the environment on behavior shine brightly...He provides compelling examples that bad luck compounds...convincingly argues against claims that chaos theory, emergent phenomena, or the indeterminism offered by quantum mechanics provide the gap required for free will to exist.” —Science

“The behavioural scientist engagingly lays out the reasons why our every action is predetermined—and why we shouldn’t despair about it...Determined is a bravura performance, well worth reading for the pleasure of Sapolsky’s deeply informed company . . . Absorbing and compassionate.” —The Guardian

“Few people understand the human brain as well as renowned neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky.” —San Francisco Chronicle