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Robert Sapolsky

Summary

Robert Sapolsky is an American neuroendocrinologist and primatologist at Stanford University, known for his accessible science writing and his book Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will (2023), which argues that free will is an illusion given deterministic biological causation.

Core Contribution

Major popularizer of neuroscience and biology; his Determined is the most prominent recent argument against free will.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • free will
  • neuroscience
  • determinism
  • behavioral biology

Notable Works & Achievements

Behave

Determined

Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers

Historical Influences

Behavioral biology neuroscience

Intellectual Lineage

Neuroscience behavioral biology primatology

Contemporaries & Peers

Daniel Dennett Sam Harris

Minds Influenced

Public understanding of neuroscience and free will

Intellectual Posterity

No conceptual posterity found.

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