Are your choices actually yours, or just a biological script?

Ideas & Philosophy · Published 29 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Imagine a world where a shooter has no more control over their actions than a person having a seizure. According to neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky, human actions occur outside our conscious awareness just like heartbeats, implying that free will does not exist.

Robert Sapolsky, a neurobiologist who spent over 40 years studying primates and humans, posits that virtually all human behavior is determined by factors outside our conscious reach. He argues that we are merely the sum of things we cannot control: our biology, our environments, and the complex interactions between them. From this perspective, a person committing a crime or a driver causing an accident due to intoxication has no more agency over their fate than a victim of a random seizure. Sapolsky's research includes years spent observing wild baboons in rural Kenya. He specifically examines how social lives create stress and impact health. This work informs his view on the biological roots of behavior.

This stance challenges the foundational pillars of modern society. Most people, philosophers, and many neuroscientists still believe in some degree of free will because it fuels our sense of achievement and personal shame. Sapolsky acknowledges that his position is 'out-there,' noting that we currently reward and punish individuals for behaviors they have no control over—a system he describes as fundamentally unfair. The neurobiologist describes himself as being majorly averse to interpersonal conflict. Because of this, he spent years avoiding academic politics while living in a tent. He wants to ensure his book does not sound like it was written by a combative jerk.

The argument against free will often stems from determinism: the idea that every physical event is caused by prior events and the laws of nature. If this is true, then every choice made today was effectively settled as far back as the Big Bang 13 billion years ago. While many still find it difficult to abandon the feeling of conscious decision-making, Sapolsky suggests that when you put all relevant science together, the notion of free will becomes 'completely silly and bankrupt.' This chain of causality extends back even before an individual is born. Every neural event leading to a decision has its own preceding physical cause. This logic suggests that every human choice was predetermined before our solar system existed.

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