FREE YOUR MIND: BUDDHISM, CAUSALITY, AND THE FREE WILL PROBLEM
Zygon® June 1, 2020 Christian Coseru
Buddhism can accommodate a meaningful conception of free will, but one that differs from Western incompatibilist notions of ultimate control or the freedom to do otherwise. The article argues that accounts of physical and neurobiological processes do not settle the free will debate; instead, the key issue is mental autonomy grounded in meditative cultivation. This conception of autonomy is compatible with the three cardinal Buddhist doctrines of momentariness, dependent arising, and no-self, because these doctrines do not eliminate agency but reframe it as a conditioned, self-correcting process. Buddhism thus has sufficient resources to account for personal agency, self-control, and moral responsibility, even within its antisubstantialist metaphysics.