{"id":61626,"date":"2025-08-31T14:13:26","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T12:13:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?p=61626"},"modified":"2025-08-31T14:14:42","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T12:14:42","slug":"sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Sapolsky Against Free Will, but Scientists Push Back"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-126060\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/sapolsky_free_will.webp\" alt=\"robert sapolsky free will\" width=\"629\" height=\"330\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i>Further criticism of <strong>Robert Sapolsky<\/strong> and his work on <strong>free will<\/strong>: he has unduly shifted the issue from philosophy to science and relied on discredited studies. The book\u2019s <strong>scientific reception<\/strong> is increasingly less favourable.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u2022 <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/2025\/01\/31\/robert-sapolsky-sul-libero-arbitrio-perche-sbaglia-tutto\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Robert Sapolsky on free will: why he\u2019s got it all wrong<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (31\/01\/2025)<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">530 pages to convince the world that human beings experience only the <strong>illusion of freedom<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">That\u2019s what biologist and primatologist <strong><mark>Robert Sapolsky<\/strong><\/mark> spent five long years trying to do, with his book reaching Italy in 2024 under the title <i>\u201c<strong>Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will<\/strong>\u201d<\/i> (Penguin Press 2023).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The media offered <strong>widespread praise<\/strong>, but within the scientific community, the reception has been <strong>far less friendly<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Back in January, we published (in Italian) <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/2025\/01\/31\/robert-sapolsky-sul-libero-arbitrio-perche-sbaglia-tutto\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a review<\/a><\/em><\/strong> of Sapolsky\u2019s work.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">We also cited the sharply negative verdict of <strong>John Martin Fischer<\/strong>, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of California, who concluded: <i>\u201cDespite all the hype, it offers <strong>nothing new or illuminating<\/strong> about free will or moral responsibility.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In truth, Sapolsky has contributed something: he is one of the few who have attempted to <strong>follow through consistently<\/strong> with the idea that absolute determinism implies there is no guilt \u2014 and therefore no responsibility \u2014 even for <strong>murderers and pedophiles<\/strong>. This left even the secular philosopher <strong>Telmo Pievani<\/strong> stunned, prompting him to <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/20240707corriere.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">rush<\/a><\/em><\/strong> to interview Sapolsky as soon as the Italian edition was released.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<h2>Sapolsky turns free will into a scientific issue<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">But the <strong>academic criticisms<\/strong> of Sapolsky have continued over the months.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/articles\/2025\/02\/13\/turtles-all-the-way-up-determined-robert-sapolsky\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">February 2025<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, <strong>Jessica Riskin<\/strong>, a historian of science at Stanford University (a student of Stephen Jay Gould and a university colleague of Sapolsky), criticised his <strong>extreme reductionism<\/strong> in depicting human beings, <strong>classifying people<\/strong> according to <i>\u201csocial class, biology, and cultural stereotypes.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In his view, the sum of genetic, environmental, cultural, and familial factors determines that <strong>the garbage collector ends up a garbage collector<\/strong> and the conformist must inevitably be conformist. <i>\u201cAdd up all the scientific findings from all the relevant fields,\u201d<\/i> he writes, <i>\u201cand there is no room for free will.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Too bad, Riskin explains, that this conclusion is anything <strong>but scientific<\/strong>, and that <i>\u201cpresenting free will as a scientific rather than a philosophical issue is a textbook case of <strong>scientism<\/strong> \u2014 extending science\u2019s claims beyond its proper bounds.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<h2>Accusations of \u201cjunk science\u201d against Robert Sapolsky<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Even harsher criticism has come from statistician <mark><strong>Andrew Gelman<\/strong><\/mark>, professor at Columbia University. Beginning with the title of his <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu\/2025\/06\/18\/junk-science-used-to-promote-arguments-against-free-will\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">post<\/a><\/em><\/strong>: <i>\u201cJunk science used to promote arguments against free will.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Gelman\u2019s rebuttal centres on Sapolsky\u2019s repeated use of <strong>studies with serious limitations<\/strong> (small samples, unreplicated findings, publication bias, etc.) to support radical conclusions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This improper and ongoing use of such research is what the American statistician labels <strong>\u201cjunk science.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Then again, Gelman notes, Sapolsky is a biologist \u2014 not a psychologist or a statistician \u2014 and lacked <strong>any specific expertise<\/strong> to recognise the poor quality of the evidence he cited. <i>\u201cBut it\u2019s now 2025,\u201d<\/i> the statistician adds, <i>\u201cand Sapolsky should know better&#8230; but, hey, he\u2019s a busy guy and probably doesn\u2019t have the time or energy to revisit his assumptions. It\u2019s a shame, but maybe it was to be expected.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A criticism echoed by neurogeneticist <strong><mark>Kevin Mitchell<\/strong><\/mark>, who commented a few years ago:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-126058\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/mitchell_sapolsky.png\" alt=\"mitchell sapolsky free will\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More academic criticism of Robert Sapolsky\u2019s work on free will. The scientific reception of his book is growing increasingly bleak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":304,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1611,1610,176,1612,1613],"class_list":["post-61626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-against-free-will","tag-andrew-gelman","tag-free-will","tag-jessica-riskin","tag-robert-sapolsky"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sapolsky Against Free Will, but Scientists Push Back - UCCR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"More academic criticism of Robert Sapolsky\u2019s work on free will. The scientific reception of his book is growing increasingly bleak.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sapolsky Against Free Will, but Scientists Push Back - UCCR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"More academic criticism of Robert Sapolsky\u2019s work on free will. The scientific reception of his book is growing increasingly bleak.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UCCR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uccronlineng\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-31T12:13:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-31T12:14:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/sapolsky_free_will.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"webmaster\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"webmaster\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/\",\"name\":\"Sapolsky Against Free Will, but Scientists Push Back - UCCR\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/sapolsky_free_will.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-31T12:13:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-31T12:14:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/266504740f79258d3ff1428b591e842a\"},\"description\":\"More academic criticism of Robert Sapolsky\u2019s work on free will. The scientific reception of his book is growing increasingly bleak.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/sapolsky_free_will.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/sapolsky_free_will.webp\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"sapolsky free will\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sapolsky Against Free Will, but Scientists Push Back\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"UCCR\",\"description\":\"Union of Catholic Christian Rationalists\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/266504740f79258d3ff1428b591e842a\",\"name\":\"webmaster\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/author\/webmaster\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sapolsky Against Free Will, but Scientists Push Back - UCCR","description":"More academic criticism of Robert Sapolsky\u2019s work on free will. The scientific reception of his book is growing increasingly bleak.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sapolsky Against Free Will, but Scientists Push Back - UCCR","og_description":"More academic criticism of Robert Sapolsky\u2019s work on free will. The scientific reception of his book is growing increasingly bleak.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/","og_site_name":"UCCR","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uccronlineng\/","article_published_time":"2025-08-31T12:13:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-08-31T12:14:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/sapolsky_free_will.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"webmaster","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"webmaster","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/","url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/","name":"Sapolsky Against Free Will, but Scientists Push Back - UCCR","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/sapolsky_free_will.webp","datePublished":"2025-08-31T12:13:26+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-31T12:14:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/266504740f79258d3ff1428b591e842a"},"description":"More academic criticism of Robert Sapolsky\u2019s work on free will. The scientific reception of his book is growing increasingly bleak.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/sapolsky_free_will.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/sapolsky_free_will.webp","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"sapolsky free will"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/08\/31\/sapolsky-against-free-will-but-scientists-push-back\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sapolsky Against Free Will, but Scientists Push Back"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/","name":"UCCR","description":"Union of Catholic Christian Rationalists","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/266504740f79258d3ff1428b591e842a","name":"webmaster","url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/author\/webmaster\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61626"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61626"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61981,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61626\/revisions\/61981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}