factual
Free Will Attributions Shrink Over History
Attitudes about free will have historically contracted: 300 years ago an epileptic seizure intuitively looked like demonic possession or a deal with Satan, and now it intuitively looks like neurological disease; this shows whole domains have had free will and moral condemnation subtracted out, and the task is to anticipate that today's intuitive judgments (e.g. that a remorseless murderer deserves harsh treatment) will look equally absurd in the future.
factualpending
Speaker
Robert SapolskyEvidence Quote
“that's been a domain where free will has been completely subtracted out of it because we can sit here and not even be aware that we find that intuitively obvious... what we have to do is like imagine that's going to seem intuitively absurd somewhere in the future so do that now instead”
Created: 6/14/2026, 2:19:39 AM
My Notes
Loading notes...