@philosophyminis: You didn't choose to wear those clothes. You didn't choose to have that job or to eat your breakfast. Everything that we call a free choice is actually inevitable. And according to the neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky in his book Determined, everything about our mental life was actually written a long, long time ago. Most of your brain was formed before you could speak, and by the time you were out of your nappies, your personality, temperament, and preferences had already started to take shape. Except for one part: the frontal cortex is responsible for planning, inhibitions, and your so-called decisions, and this stays open to change for about two decades. And that's intentional because having a malleable frontal cortex is what allows us to fit into cultures and societies and real-life situations that we are born into. It allows us to adapt. And so, the part of our brain that is responsible for these so-called decisions is actually not meant to be free. It is meant to be shaped. Your decisions are the latest accumulation of a lot of causes. As Sapolsky puts it, "everything from the neurobiology of a second ago to evolutionary pressures over the last million years, goes into how you became the sort of person you are. And when you look at all of that closely, you had no control over it." For Sapolsky, there is "not a single crack of daylight in which to shoehorn free will." Our choices are the product of evolution, our environment, and the brain that is made by both.

Jonny Thomson

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Thursday 31 July 2025 14:30:00 GMT