Determined, or Not? A Review of Determined, by Robert Sapolsky

*Determined*, by Robert Sapolsky, argues that free will is a poor basis for accountability and that social systems should account for the past circumstances that shape people's decisions. The reviewer contends that Sapolsky's Hard Determinism is less settled than he suggests and proposes replacing the free will and determinism debate with cognitivism, which treats consciousness as a virtual layer that cannot be fully derived from neural activity. The review praises Sapolsky's grasp of the philosophical literature but says he overlooks how conscious deliberation fits into his account and that his Laplace's daemon thought experiment assumes impossibly perfect information.