Why read Buddhist Perspectives on Free Will?

Book cover of Buddhist Perspectives on Free Will: Agentless Agency?

Book description

Throughout the history of Buddhism, little has been said prior to the Twentieth Century that explicitly raises the question whether we have free will, though the Buddha rejected fatalism and some Buddhists have addressed whether karma is fatalistic. Recently, however, Buddhist and Western philosophers have begun to explicitly discuss Buddhism…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Buddhist Perspectives on Free Will as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Mark Siderits

Author

A key claim of Buddhist philosophy is that all the facts about persons are causally determined. This claim leads people to wonder where Buddhists stand on the so-called ‘free will’ problem: can someone whose actions are determined by earlier events be held responsible for what they do? This question never arose in Indian Buddhist philosophy, but modern scholars have had much to say about whether Buddhism’s causal determinism is compatible with the practice of praising or blaming people for what they do. This book collects some of the best attempts to answer the question.

From Mark's list on The best books on Indian Buddhist philosophy.