I used to very politely say that if there is free will then it's in all sorts of boring places, like whether you're going to pick up this or that fork as you begin your meal. There really is none: It's all biology.
Robert SapolskyRead
The notion of humans as inherently rational beings has been not only trashed in economics, but trashed in all the best research on moral decision-making.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Humans are often not as rational as we believe when making decisions, especially moral ones.
Robert Sapolsky highlights that the belief in humans as inherently rational beings has been undermined not just in economics but across various studies in moral decision-making. This suggests that our decisions are often influenced by irrational factors, which challenge the idea of humans as purely logical actors.
Themes
RationalityDecision-MakingMoralityHuman BehaviorEconomics
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about economic policies, one can use this quote to emphasize the irrationality behind certain decisions.
More from Robert Sapolsky
All quotes →When you've wised up enough, there is a very clear conclusion that you have to reach after a while, which is, at the end of the day, it is really impossible for one person to make a difference.
Robert SapolskyRead
My adolescent rebellions took the form of, if anything, passive aggressively doing what was asked of me but doing it ten times more than what was asked of me, so that eventually they'd have to beg me to stop.
Robert SapolskyRead
When humans invented material inequality, they came up with a way of subjugating the low-ranking like nothing ever seen before in the primate world.
Robert SapolskyRead
Yes, genes are important for understanding our behavior. Incredibly important - after all, they code for every protein pertinent to brain function, endocrinology, etc., etc. But the regulation of genes is often more interesting than the genes themselves, and it's the environment that regulates genes.
Robert SapolskyRead
I expected social rank to be the determining factor in health, and in some ways that's true. But far more important is what sort of society that rank occurs in. Being low ranking in a benevolent troop is a hell of a lot better for your blood pressure than being low ranking in an aggressive troop.
Robert SapolskyRead
Similar quotes
Was it Aristotle who said the human soul is composed of reason, will, and desire?” “No, that was Plato. Aristotle and Plato were as different as Mel Tormé and Bing Crosby. In any case, things were a lot simpler in the old days,” Komatsu said. “Wouldn’t it be fun to imagine reason, will, and desire engaged in a fierce debate around a table?
Haruki MurakamiRead
As compacts, charters of government are superior in obligation to all others, because they give effect to all others. As truths, none can be more sacred, because they are bound, on the conscience by the religious sanctions of an oath. As metes and bounds of government, they transcend all other land-marks, because every public usurpation is an encroachment on the private right, not of one, but of all.
James MadisonRead
There is no female mind. The brain is not an organ of sex. As well speak of a female liver.
Charlotte Perkins GilmanRead
Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart...
Aleksandr SolzhenitsynRead
The opposite of every truth is just as true.
Hermann HesseRead
Animals don't know as much about jealousy as people, but they're not ignorant of it, either.
Stephen KingRead