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Thomas Hobbes, in his treatise "Of Liberty and Necessity," challenged the conventional understanding of free will by questioning the autonomy of the will itself, arguing that the ability to act according to one's will does not equate to the freedom of the will to form independently of external influences. Extending Hobbes's skepticism, Sapolsky's "Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will" employs modern scientific evidence to argue that intent and volition are products of antecedent causes rather than manifestations of free will. Through a comprehensive review of cognitive neuroscience, Sapolsky illustrates how intent emerges from the complex interplay of brain structures that are effectively predetermined by a web of causality that includes genetic, environmental and cultural factors. This review also highlights the book's implications of determinism for concepts such as moral responsibility, retributive justice, and societal perceptions of human exceptionalism. By integrating philosophical skepticism with empirical findings from psychology and neuroscience, Sapolsky's book elucidates the fallacy of free will and argues for a deterministic perspective that reshapes our understanding of human agency and accountability.
Krueger et al. (Thu,) studied this question.