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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that free will is limited and largely determined by biological factors.
Robert Sapolsky articulates a perspective that questions the existence of free will, suggesting that even our seemingly trivial choices, like selecting a fork during a meal, are influenced by biological processes rather than true autonomy. This raises fundamental questions about human agency and the extent to which our decisions are predetermined by our biology.
Themes
Free WillBiologyDeterminismChoicesPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate on free will, this quote can serve to highlight a deterministic view of human behavior.
More from Robert Sapolsky
All quotes →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
That's what stress management is about, that's what psychotherapy is about, finding religion, or finding your loved one or your hobby - any of those, they give you more outlets, more of a sense of control, more of a sense of predictability, of social support. They give you the means to psychologically finesse ambiguous outside reality.
Robert SapolskyRead
Similar quotes
You'll see certain Pythagorean whose belief in communism of property goes to such lengths that they pick up anything lying about unguarded, and make off with it without a qualm of conscience as if it had come to them by law.
Desiderius ErasmusRead
Detestation of the high is the involuntary homage of the low.
Charles DickensRead
That we find a crystal or a poppy beautiful means that we are less alone, that we are more deeply inserted into existence than the course of a single life would lead us to believe.
John BergerRead
The character of God is today, and always will be, exactly what it was in Bible times.
J. I. PackerRead
The yogi cannot be afraid to die, because he has brought life to every cell of his body. We are afraid to die, because we are afraid we have not lived. The yogi has lived.
B.K.S. IyengarRead
Every man is somebody because he is a child of God.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Read