Two incompatible images of the material nature of human beings and of being human: Reframing the free will debate

Recent debates about free will, especially in the neurosciences, have been central to the debate about what it is to be human. Two recent publications, one by Robert Sapolsky and the other by Kevin Mitchell, not only represent distinct views on free will and moral accountability, but they depart from different images of human beings and divergent framings of the puzzle. For Sapolsky, there is no…