Robert Sapolsky has long been asking an extremely important and rather big question that we all have been asking since the dawn of human introspection/reflection on behavior:
"Why did that behavior occur?" (What caused it?)
He wrote two books to answer this question:
- Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst (2017)
- Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will (2023)
Behave
This book is perhaps best summarized by his TED Talk on the topic.
Quick summary of both the book and the TED Talk:
"Every bit of behavior has multiple levels of causality.
So we ask this biological question:
What was going on that caused this behavior? What caused this behavior?"
A high-level overview on how behavior happens / why a behavior occurs:
- The action of neurons in the brain (neural activity) — in the preceding second before.
- The thoughts, memories, emotions, and sensory stimuli of the environment that activated those neurons — in the seconds to minutes before.
- The hormones in circulation that shaped those thoughts, memories, and emotions and altered how sensitive the brain was to particular environmental stimuli — in the hours to days before.
- The experiences and environment that changed how those neurons function, causing some to sprout new connections and become more excitable, and causing the opposite in others (neural plasticity) — in the weeks to years before.
- The socialization, acculturation, experiences, and environment that shaped the construction of the frontal cortex — in the years of adolescence before.
- The experiences and epigenetic changes that shaped the fundamental construction of the brain — in the years of childhood before.
- The fetal environment — in the years in the womb.
- The inherited genes and gene-environment interactions.
- The culture and socioeconomic status that influenced childhood experiences and family upbringing.
- The culture and cultural values of ancestors — in the centuries before.
- The ecological factors that influenced the culture — in the centuries before.
- The evolutionary pressures that molded the human species and its genes — in the one hundred million years before.
In sum:
Q: "Why did that behavior occur?"
A: Because of the events from: one second before, one minute, one hour, one day, one week, one month, one year, one decade, one century, to one hundred million years before.
Key factors include: neurons, neural activity, thoughts, memories, emotions, sensory stimuli, neurochemicals, hormones, experiences, environment, socialization, acculturation, the nervous system, the brain, each brain system, the construction of each brain region (including the frontal cortex), neural plasticity, epigenetics, gene-environment interactions, childhood experiences, family upbringing, family socioeconomic status, the prenatal/fetal environment, inherited genes, societal values, ancestral culture, ecology, evolution, etc.
"Basically, what we're seeing here is, if you want to understand a behavior — whether it's an appalling one, a wondrous one, or confusedly in between — if you want to understand that, you've got take into account what happened a second before to a million years before, everything in between."
- It's caused by what happened a millisecond before to a million years before, and everything in between.
"So what can we conclude at this point? Officially, it's complicated. Wow, that's really helpful. It's complicated, and you'd better be real careful, real cautious before you conclude you know what causes a behavior, especially if it's a behavior you're judging harshly."
- It's complicated.
"Our worst behaviors — ones we condemn and punish — are the products of our biology. But don't forget that the same applies to our best behaviors."
- All of our behaviors — our best and our worst — are the products of our biology.
Determined
This book is about the science and life philosophy of determinism and free will.
Quick summary of the book:
Our big behavioral question: "Why did that behavior occur?" (What caused it?)
The answer: Determinism
- The behavior happened because: something that preceded it caused it to happen.
- And why did that prior circumstance occur? Because: something that preceded it caused it to happen.
- The behavior happened because of: the determinism that came just before, which was caused by the determinism just before that, and before that, all the way down.
- That behavior occurred because of:
- The biological and environmental interactions, all the way down.
- The cumulative biological and environmental happenings of the past.
- The events from one second before, one minute, one hour, one day, one week, one month, one year, one decade, one century, to one hundred million years before.
- … Because of: variables/factors that you had little or no control over.
This determines all of life, and all of who we are.
Life is determined by prior causes.
We are all the results of prior causes.
Events from one second ago to a million years ago determine your life and who you are.
We have little to no control over nearly all of these variables/factors.
Thus, …
Blame and punishment are misguided. Judgmental opinions are unfounded.
No one "deserves" anything. No one "deserves" punishment or praise.
No one has earned or is entitled to being treated better or worse than anyone else.
(No one "deserves" a long life of fulfillment or a long prison sentence.)
There is no justifiable "deserve".
You are no more entitled to have your needs and desires met than is any other human.
There is no human who is less worthy than you to have their well-being considered.
Hate makes no sense. It is absurd to hate anyone for anything they've done.
Hating a person for their behavior is sadder than hating the sky for storming, hating the earth when it quakes, and hating a virus because it's good at getting into lung cells.
Conclusion
Every bit of behavior has multiple levels of causality — prior causes from a millisecond before to a hundred million years before, and everything in between.
All of our behaviors are the products of our biological and environmental interactions. We are the cumulative biological and environmental happenings of the past.
Everything happens because of preceding happenings. Everything is caused by preceding causes.
We have little or no control over these variables/factors/causes/events.
Life is determined by prior causes. We are all the results of prior causes.
Events from one second ago to a million years ago determine your life and who you are.
Thus, the entire concept of "worthiness" ("deserving") is nonsensical.
No one "deserves" or is "entitled" to anything — neither punishment nor praise.
You are no more "deserving"/"entitled" to have your needs and desires met than anyone else.
No one is "less worthy/deserving" than you of flourishing or suffering.
Blame and (by extension) hatred are both absurd and indefensible.