Book "Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will" to be Released on May 1st

Japan Management Association Management Center (JMAM), led by Representative Director and President Shiro Cho (Chuo-ku, Tokyo), will release the book "Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will" at bookstores nationwide and online on Friday, May 1, 2026.

■ Book Content

Highly acclaimed in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Science, and New Scientist!

Stanford University neuroscientist and behavioral biologist Robert Sapolsky fundamentally overturns the conventional wisdom of free will and self-responsibility!

"Your brain" has already made a decision before "you" think you've decided.
And that brain is shaped by your genes and all your experiences since birth, family environment, education, social environment and culture, and information from the media.

In this book, leveraging the latest insights from neuroscience, behavioral biology, psychology, quantum physics, chaos theory, and complex systems science, themes such as the following are explained with a humorous narrative:

・Libet's experiment, which unravels the mechanism of choice in our brains
・Exploring free will from the perspectives of quantum physics, chaos theory, and complex systems science
・Is striving for something truly a virtue?
・Can criminals be held responsible?

While the author himself grapples with the scientific and logical conclusions, he casts a ray of hope on the questions facing modern society.

[From the editor]
There will be pros and cons to the conclusion drawn by the author. The author himself admits, "This is a conclusion I reached a long time ago. And even I think it sounds crazy to seriously consider it." The charm of this book lies in the coexistence of scientific rationality, demonstrated with an overwhelming amount of knowledge, and the human contradiction of the author struggling to internalize it emotionally. Whether you sympathize with the author's conclusions or oppose them, it is a truly compelling and substantial work.

■ Book Outline

Title: Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will

Author: Robert M. Sapolsky

Translator: Naoko Ota

Release Date: Friday, May 1, 2026

Price: 4,180 yen (tax included)

Publisher: Japan Management Association Management Center Co., Ltd.

Pages: 664 pages

Format: Quadruple (roughly A5)

ISBN: 9784800594327

■ Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Tortoise All the Way Down
Chapter 2: The Last Three Minutes of the Movie
Chapter 3: Where Do Intentions Come From?
Chapter 4: The Illusion of Spontaneous Willpower—Grit
Chapter 5: Introduction to Chaos
Chapter 6: Is Free Will Chaotic?
Chapter 7: Introduction to Emergent Complexity
Chapter 8: Does Free Will Emerge?
Chapter 9: Introduction to Quantum Indeterminacy
Chapter 10: Is Free Will Random?
Chapter 10.5: Interlude
Chapter 11: Do We Intend to Run Amok?
Chapter 12: Our Ancient Equipment Within—How Does Change Happen?
Chapter 13: We've Actually Done This Before
Chapter 14: The Joy of Punishing
Chapter 15: Dying Poorly
Appendix: Introduction to Neuroscience

■ Author Profile

Robert M. Sapolsky

Has written multiple non-fiction works. His representative works include "A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons" (translated by Akiko Osawa, Misuzu Shobo), "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping" (translated by Keiko Nakamura, Hakuyosha), and "Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst" (translated by Keiji Morihei, Springer-Verlag Tokyo). His previous work, "Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst" (translated by Naoko Ota, NHK Publishing), was a New York Times bestseller and was selected as one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. He is the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor at Stanford University, and a professor of biology and neurology. He is also a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant." He resides in San Francisco with his wife.

■ Translator Profile

Naoko Ota

Translator. Graduated from the Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Letters, University of Tokyo.
Her translations include Robert Sapolsky's "Behave" (NHK Publishing), Venkatraman Ramakrishnan's "Gene Machine" (Misuzu Shobo), Jeff Hawkins' "On Intelligence", Richard Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene", and Andreas Wagner's "Arrival of the Fittest" (all from Hayakawa Shobo), Steven Johnson's "How We Got to Now" (Asahi Shimbun Publications), and many others.

■ Introduction to the Paper Edition

How should we live in an inescapably unfair world?

■ Purchase Here

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