Determined

The Science of Life Without Free Will

By: Robert M. Sapolsky

Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith

Brought to you by Penguin.

One of the world’s greatest scientists of human behaviour, the bestselling author of Behave, shows that free will does not exist - and sets out the disturbing yet liberating implications of accepting this fact.

What if free will is an illusion? As Robert Sapolsky shows in this masterful account of the science of human behaviour, everything we think and do is caused by the luck of our biology and the influence of our environment, and ultimately both are beyond our control. In a world without free will, we must completely rethink what we mean by choice, responsibility, morality and justice. Sapolsky’s extraordinary book does exactly this, guiding us toward a profoundly fairer, more humane way of living together.

‘A joy to read. It's impossible to recommend this book too highly. Reading it could change your life’ LAURENCE REES

‘Outstanding for its breadth of research, the liveliness of the writing and the depth of humanity it conveys’ Wall Street Journal

‘Moving, absorbing, compassionate' OLIVER BURKEMAN, Observer

©2023 Robert M Sapolsky (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

[A] highly entertaining account of why … we should and must overcome the infuriating conspiracy of mind that insists we are the authors of our actions. Anyone who believes otherwise needs to read it (Philip Ball)

Wonderfully readable ... humorous and warm and humane (Justin Webb)

Great content and narration but…

“Please see the accompanying PDF for a footnote” every two paragraphs is unnecessary and irritating. Bad design decision. Not the fault of the author or narrator.

Wonderful as usual, but annoying

Sapolsky prose is always asy to grasp and convincing.... Some thin ice arguments I could argue against, but so it is also recognized by the author. But please, make a new edition changing the footnotes comments for a musical tone or read them.

Determined: 'please see the attached pdf for a footnote'

Please see the review title for what I didn't like. The rest I found compelling and well-structured; a good dose of neuroscientific nuts and bolts balanced out by curious historical case studies and anecdotes. The rational part of my brain is perfectly willing to accept the absence and illusory nature of free will, but there is still a nagging itch around accountability and credit for choices that this book didn't quite reach. I do enjoy Sapolski's dry sense of humour - it did help to punctuate some of the otherwise drier passages of the text. I would recommend this book but I am not convinced that doing so will influence anyone else's decision to read it. Or will it?

Missing PDF

Great book; excellent round-up of the case for hard determinism. Performance was pretty good (although it’s a bit hard to distinguish when the narrator is reading footnotes vs jumping back to the main text). But there are many references to diagrams & images in the PDF accompaniment that Audible have neglected to provide. Quite annoying.

Everyone should listen to this book

Stretch your mind and make an effort to understand this book. It is literally mind-blowing.