Why There’s No Such Thing as Free Will w/ Robert Sapolsky (#395)

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Science, Physics, Natural Sciences

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2024

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/list to win a meteorite 💥 Whether or not there is free will has tortured scientists from many fields since philosophers in ancient Greece started wondering about it. But for one scientist, there’s no question about it… Meet neuroendocrinology researcher, bestselling author, and Stanford University professor – Robert Sapolsky! Sapolsky’s journey has led him from studying stress and neuronal degeneration in wild baboons in Kenya to exploring the relationship between schizotypal disorders and the emergence of shamanism and the major Western religions. But more recently, Sapolsky has plunged into philosophical waters, studying free will, or rather the lack thereof, to come up with A Science of Life Without Free Will. Today, he’s here to present his case! Tune in. Key Takeaways: 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:27 How can we understand free will without understanding consciousness? 00:04:30 Panpsychism 00:07:25 Quantum indeterminacy and free will 00:15:17 Do baboons have free will? 00:19:36 Are there levels of determinism? 00:30:46 The neuroscience of free will 00:37:42 Free will, ethics, and a criminal justice reform 00:45:58 Punishment and justice in Judaism 00:54:37 God’s omniscience and free will 01:01:16 What can we learn from baboons? 01:05:26 The most magical discovery 01:08:11 What did Robert change his mind on? 01:10:08 Outro — Additional resources: 📚 Get Determined by Robert Sapolsky on Amazon: https://a.co/d/csNwICN 📝 Get one month of Snipd Premium for free with this link: https://get.snipd.com/Cx7S/brianSnipd Snipd lets you take Smart Notes 🧠 with AI 💡 — it’s my favorite podcast player 😀 ! 📢 Ownership of your health starts with AG1. Try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D3K2 and 5 FREE AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase 👉 https://drinkag1.com/impossible ➡️ Follow me on your fav platforms: ✖️ Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating 🔔 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1 📝 Join my mailing list: https://briankeating.com/list ✍️ Check out my blog: https://briankeating.com/cosmic-musings/ 🎙️ Follow my podcast: https://briankeating.com/podcast Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known. Make sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today we're featuring renowned neuroendocrinologist best-selling author and
0:04.8	Stanford University professor Robert Sapolsky. He's one of Stanford's top rated
0:09.5	professors and you'll see why in today's episode. Robert's journey has led him from studying stress and neuronal degradation in wild baboons in Kenya
0:18.0	to exploring the relationship between schizophrenia disorders and the emergence of a shamanism in the major Western religions.
0:25.0	But more recently, Sapolsky has plunged into philosophical waters, studying free will, or rather what he claims is the illusion and lack thereof. He's come up with a new narrative to describe the science of life without free will. In his book determined, he combines neuroscience, anthropology, quantum physics, chaos theory, and philosophy to tackle some of the most important questions of the human species. You'll see I push back on him with my requisite love and respect, but no one gets a free pass on the Into the
0:55.0	impossible podcast. I want to ask the questions I know you wish you could ask my
0:59.2	guest and you will. Today he's here to present his case and you'll be the judge.
1:04.0	Who's right?
1:05.0	Is free will an illusion?
1:07.0	Or do we have control and are we the determinants of our future. technology is indistinguishable from magic.
1:25.0	Open the pod bay doors now.
1:27.0	Robert, as you know, I'm a physicist. I've had on many physicists. I love talking to physicists, but I also love talking to biologists, neurobiologists, and all sorts of folks.
1:36.0	I always have a problem with these people when I talk to people like David Chalmers,
1:41.0	and that it seems hopeless. Cosmology seems hard, but consciousness seems impossible.
1:46.8	And to me, how can we understand the notion of free will if we don't have a notion of consciousness
1:51.8	that everyone accepts.
1:53.3	So, is that, am I making a fallacious argument or is it really the case that you could
1:59.3	not understand free will
2:03.4	until you understand how consciousness itself emerges.
2:05.0	Um, nicely. I think, uh, fortunately one could ignore consciousness and I
2:09.6	completely agree with you. Once, once a decade, I forced myself to read a I
2:13.7	force myself to read a review paper on sort of neurobiology of consciousness and see with
	...

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