What's your Opinion About Robert Sapolsky?

[SQAAD]

I was watching this video and noticed that Robert Sapolsky could not stop himself from making some very non-scientific claims such as that depressed people see Reality for what it is because they can't rationalize it away, that it's all Random and that there is no God. I don't like watching him because he is very sure about his materialism but i find the subject of free will very interesting.

After watching his content, i always feel sad and threatened metaphysically but it passes. Also the host of this video was very sure that we are just having a biological experience, lol.

Any thoughts about Robert Sapolsky and how should i navigate all of this?

 

Edited March 23, 2024 by SQAAD

[mmKay]

Materialism, ewww. I still haven't watched much of Sapolsky. I found him very eloquent but that doesn't have to translate to Wisdom and/ or epistemological knowledge 

Edited Wednesday at 08:27 AM by mmKay

[SwiftQuill]

@SQAAD I'm a fan of Sapolsky. I think he's very intelligent. I watched a playlist of around 20 psych lectures by him.

Leo has regarded Sapolsky stage yellow. In my opinion Sapolsky is very much a materialist. I don't think I would consider him stage yellow at least in terms of science. He has deep knowledge of the human mind but to me it feels very narrow to the common stage orange scientist.

I've not seen much of him talking about other topics outside psychology, so I wouldn't know. He might indeed be stage yellow in other regards.

[Lyubov]

He’s completely disconnected himself from god / spirit / the Tao / intuition (whatever you wish to call it). The world appears only dark and sad and hopeless when you fail to see through the clouds blocking the sun. His choice. 

[Leo Gura]

Don't listen to him when he speaks about stuff beyond his field of research, like philosophical or metaphysical issues.

[Dan502]

Like the scientists who have found data supporting the benefits of meditation, I see Sapolsky's work as wonderfully complimentary of our contemplation of the self because he has discovered that our experience of being a person with free will is in some sense superficial/just an idea.

Also, he has realized that this has implications for the justice system where it only punishes people for the decisions that they make (as though they "could have" made a different decision).

 

[fabger]

@SQAAD He has a very interconnected understanding of biology behavior and sociology. You can learn a lot even though he is a materialist.