Determined

1

Turtles All the Way Down

When I was in college, my friends and I had an anecdote that we retold frequently; it went like this (and our retelling was so ritualistic that I suspect this is close to verbatim, forty-five years later):

So, it seems that William James was giving a lecture about the nature of life and the universe. Afterward, an old woman came up and said, "Professor James, you have it all wrong."

To which James asked, "How so, madam?"

"Things aren't at all like you said," she replied. "The world is on the back of a gigantic turtle."

"Hmm." said James, bemused. "That may be so, but where does that turtle stand?"

"On the back of another turtle," she answered.

"But madam," said James indulgently, "where does that turtle stand?"

To which the old woman responded triumphantly: "It's no use, Professor James. It's turtles all the way down!"

Oh, how we loved that story, always told it with the same intonation. We thought it made us seem droll and pithy and attractive.

We used the anecdote as mockery, a pejorative critique of someone clinging unshakably to illogic. We'd be in the dinner hall, and someone had said something nonsensical, where their response to being challenged had made things worse. Inevitably, one of us would smugly say, "It's no use, Professor James!" to which the person, who had heard our stupid anecdote repeatedly, would inevitably respond, "Screw you, just listen. This actually makes sense."

Here is the point of this book: While it may seem ridiculous and nonsensical to explain something by resorting to an infinity of turtles all the way down, it actually is much more ridiculous and nonsensical to believe that somewhere down there, there's a turtle floating in the air. The science of human behavior shows that turtles can't float; instead, it is indeed turtles all the way down.

Someone behaves in a particular way. Maybe it's wonderful and inspiring, maybe it's appalling, maybe it's in the eye

Robert M. Sapolsky

Sapolsky s decades of experience studying the effects of the interplay of genes and the environment on behavior shine brightly . . . He provides compelling examples that bad luck compounds . . . convincingly argues against claims that chaos theory, emergent phenomena, or the indeterminism offered by quantum mechanics provide the gap required for free will to exist. Science

The behavioural scientist engagingly lays out the reasons why our every action is predetermined and why we shouldn t despair about it . . . Determined is a bravura performance, well worth reading for the pleasure of Sapolsky s deeply informed company . . . Absorbing and compassionate. The Guardian

Few people understand the human brain as well as renowned neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky. Most Anticipated Fall Books, San Francisco Chronicle

Witty and engaging, Determined is also a goldmine of fascinating information (most of it accessible even to those of us who aren t scientifically literate) about neuroscience; philosophy; chaos theory; emergent complexity; quantum indeterminacy; evolving knowledge of the causes of epilepsy, schizophrenia, and autism; and, of course, the impact of nature and nurture on decision-making. Psychology Today

Determined is a sustained attempt at demonstrating that the decisions we make every day are  products of complex factors of which we re not in charge . . . This is an amiable, surprisingly accessible and at times a persuasive book a paean to empathy and tolerance that yearns for a world in which societies eventually realize that retribution is futile and wrong . . . [Sapolsky] can be pleased with the knowledge that what he s written is stimulating to read, even for those who doubt his conclusions. San Francisco Chronicle

Sapolsky presents in his inimitable style a cogent argument explaining that free will is an illusion . . . Sapolsky tackles many complicated facets of this demanding