Free Your Mind: Buddhism, Causality, and the Free Will Problem

The problem of free will is associated with a specific and significant kind of control over our actions, which is understood primarily in the sense that we have the freedom to do otherwise or the capacity for self-determination. Is Buddhism compatible with such a conception of free will? The aim of...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Coseru, Christian (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Wiley-Blackwell [2020]
In: Zygon
Year: 2020, Volume: 55, Issue: 2, Pages: 461-473
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Buddhism / Causality / Free will / Self-determination / Neurobiology
RelBib Classification:AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism
AE Psychology of religion
BL Buddhism
Further subjects:B Free Will
B Consciousness
B Meditation
B Causation
B Moral Responsibility
B conscious will
B Buddhist ethics
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:The problem of free will is associated with a specific and significant kind of control over our actions, which is understood primarily in the sense that we have the freedom to do otherwise or the capacity for self-determination. Is Buddhism compatible with such a conception of free will? The aim of this article is to address three critical issues concerning the free will problem: (1) what role should accounts of physical and neurobiological processes play in discussions of free will? (2) Is a conception of mental autonomy grounded in practices of meditative cultivation compatible with the three cardinal Buddhist doctrines of momentariness, dependent arising, and no-self? (3) Are there enough resources in Buddhism, given its antisubstantialist metaphysics, to account for personal agency, self-control, and moral responsibility?
ISSN:1467-9744
Contains:Enthalten in: Zygon
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/zygo.12586