Determined

How Biology and History Shape Every Choice

An old story tells of a woman who claimed the world rests on the back of a giant turtle. When asked what the turtle stands on, she replied it was another turtle, and another, all the way down. This humorous anecdote illustrates a profound truth about human behavior, showing that there is no uncaused choice existing somewhere in our biology. Every human action is the result of biological events that happened just moments before.

A neuron fires because it was stimulated by another neuron, which was influenced by a thought, an emotion, or a sensory memory. These internal states are shaped by the hormones circulating in the blood over the previous hours and days. Even the immediate environment plays a role, as the sights and sounds around us trigger specific neural pathways that alter our sensitivity to the world.

The chain of causality stretches back much further than a few minutes or days. Our brains were constructed during adolescence and childhood, shaped by experiences and parental care we did not choose. Before birth, the environment of the womb influenced how our genes were regulated and how our physical structures formed. Even the cultures of our ancestors, molded by centuries of ecology and evolutionary pressure, dictate how we respond to the world today.

Many thinkers try to find room for free will by looking at individual fields like genetics or neuroscience in isolation. They argue that because no single gene or brain region dictates everything, room for choice must remain. But when you weave these disciplines together, the gaps disappear completely. The chemical messengers in our brain are built by genes, which were shaped by evolution, which was driven by environment.

This perspective leaves no room for the traditional concept of moral responsibility. If every aspect of a person’s character is the result of biological and environmental luck, then the idea of deserving something becomes obsolete. We are the cumulative products of factors over which we had zero control. Recognizing this requires a radical shift in how we view ourselves and others, moving away from a world of judgment and toward one of understanding.

Consider a university graduation ceremony where a student receives a degree while a groundskeeper empties the trash nearby. If you could magically swap their genes, their fetal environments, and every minute of their upbringings, their positions would be reversed. The graduate is not inherently more deserving of her success, and the worker is not inherently less worthy of his station. They are simply the end products of different deterministic paths.