Q&A: Free Will and Evolution
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Free Will and Evolution
Question
Hi,
I read your book The Science of Freedom and enjoyed it מאוד. Thank you very much.
I have 2 questions.
First of all, in your opinion, do animals have free will?
If not, then the question arises:
At what developmental stage in the evolution of humans from apes did free will emerge? Did it suddenly appear at some point in the middle? The father doesn’t have it, and then suddenly an offspring is born with a mutation of free will? How did the capacity come into being? (And the same question about the soul.)
Thank you very much
Answer
I don’t know.
I don’t know.
The Torah itself exempts people from responsibility up to age 13. And general law as well exempts small children from responsibility, though with a different age threshold. Since animals and apes are far less developed than a small child, they too are exempt, and that is a sign that they do not have free will. When humans reached the level of thinking that a 6-year-old child has today, they already had the first buds of the capacity for choice. The human level of thought grew through a process that was not only evolutionary, but also social and cultural.