Charles Goodman
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195375190
- eISBN:
- 9780199871377
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195375190.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Although Buddhist texts don’t explicitly discuss the problem of free will, they stake out a number of theoretical views that commit them to a certain answer to this problem. Buddhist texts clearly ...
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Although Buddhist texts don’t explicitly discuss the problem of free will, they stake out a number of theoretical views that commit them to a certain answer to this problem. Buddhist texts clearly present both the universal causality and predictability in principle forms of determinism, and they reject the agent causation necessary for most forms of libertarianism. They also reject the appropriateness and reasonableness of participant reactive attitudes such as anger and resentment. Although having, or appearing to have, some of these attitudes might sometimes be helpful, feeling them always involves delusion. As a result, we should understand the entire Indian Buddhist tradition as committed to hard determinism. Some have objected that hard determinism denounces attitudes that we are in fact unable to abandon. But through meditation practice, Buddhists hold that we can eliminate anger and resentment, resulting in a better, gentler way to live that is also more theoretically defensible.Less
Although Buddhist texts don’t explicitly discuss the problem of free will, they stake out a number of theoretical views that commit them to a certain answer to this problem. Buddhist texts clearly present both the universal causality and predictability in principle forms of determinism, and they reject the agent causation necessary for most forms of libertarianism. They also reject the appropriateness and reasonableness of participant reactive attitudes such as anger and resentment. Although having, or appearing to have, some of these attitudes might sometimes be helpful, feeling them always involves delusion. As a result, we should understand the entire Indian Buddhist tradition as committed to hard determinism. Some have objected that hard determinism denounces attitudes that we are in fact unable to abandon. But through meditation practice, Buddhists hold that we can eliminate anger and resentment, resulting in a better, gentler way to live that is also more theoretically defensible.
Bruce N. Waller
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262028165
- eISBN:
- 9780262327404
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262028165.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Emotions are a valuable and vital part of our lives, and denial of moral responsibility in no way threatens them. The fear that denial of moral responsibility would result in emotional impoverishment ...
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Emotions are a valuable and vital part of our lives, and denial of moral responsibility in no way threatens them. The fear that denial of moral responsibility would result in emotional impoverishment and elimination of all participant reactive attitudes is ungrounded; it results from the false belief that denial of moral responsibility is based on excuse-extensionism and the belief that moral responsibility can only be denied for special cases of incompetence or insanity. Instead, the universal denial of moral responsibility rejects moral responsibility always and for everyone, no matter how sane and rational. Finally, the fact that negative emotions toward wrongdoers cannot and should not be eliminated does not provide grounds for supposing that the targets of such emotions justly deserve blame or punishment.Less
Emotions are a valuable and vital part of our lives, and denial of moral responsibility in no way threatens them. The fear that denial of moral responsibility would result in emotional impoverishment and elimination of all participant reactive attitudes is ungrounded; it results from the false belief that denial of moral responsibility is based on excuse-extensionism and the belief that moral responsibility can only be denied for special cases of incompetence or insanity. Instead, the universal denial of moral responsibility rejects moral responsibility always and for everyone, no matter how sane and rational. Finally, the fact that negative emotions toward wrongdoers cannot and should not be eliminated does not provide grounds for supposing that the targets of such emotions justly deserve blame or punishment.
