The Abhidharma Version of No-Self Theory
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.31485Keywords:
Buddhism, Abhidharma, No-SelfAbstract
This paper elucidates the Abhidharma attempt to revise our ordinary ways of thinking and our ordinary conceptual scheme in which the self (minimally conceived of as the referent of ‘I’) occupies a prime position. This revisionary metaphysics provides an intellectually and morally preferred picture of the world that lacks such a self. The no-self theory is no doubt deeply counter-intuitive. In response to this some contemporary scholars offer a weak version of the Buddhist no-self account which incorporates elements of Abhidharma and M?dhyamika philosophies. I analyse two such in?uential attempts by contemporary philosophers who weaken the no-self account in a bid to show that we can retreive a minimal notion of self from the Buddhist account. However, to reconstruct a self from the scraps of the no-self view is to, I think, misunderstand the strategy employed by Vasubandhu. In this paper, I argue that it is a mistake to interpret the noself view as allowing for a minimal self. To be true to the spirit and arguments of the Abhidharma Buddhist philosophers we need to deny the self, period.References
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Strawson, Peter F. 1959. Individuals. Methuen, London.
Strawson, Peter F. 1992. Analysis and Metaphysics. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Thompson, Evan. 2014. Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy. Columbia University Press, New York. https://doi.org/10.7312/thom13709
Zahavi Dan. 2005. Subjectivity and Selfhood: Investigating the First-person Perspective. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Zahavi Dan. 2011. The Experiential Self: Objections and Clari?cations. In Self, No Self? Perspectives from Analytical, Phenomenological, and Indian Traditions. Edited by M. Siderits, E. Thompson, and D. Zahavi. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 56-78.
Zahavi Dan. 2012. The Time of the Self. Grazer Philosophische Studien 84: 143-59.
Blanke, Olaf, and Thomas Metzinger. 2009. Full-body Illusions and Minimal Phenomenal Selfhood. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 13: 7-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2008.10.003
Chadha, Monima. 2015. Time-Series of Ephemeral Impressions: The Abhidharma-Buddhist View of Conscious Experience. Phenomenology and Cognitive Sciences 14(3): 543-60.
Cox, Collett. 2004. From Category to Ontology: The Changing Role of Dharma in Sarv?stiv?da Abhidharma. Journal of Indian Philosophy 32: 543-97. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-004-8635-4
Damasio, Antonio. 2012. Self Comes to Mind.Vintage Books, New York.
Dreyfus, Georges. 2010. Self and Subjectivity: A Middle Way Approach. In Self vs. No-Self, edited by Mark Siderits, Evan Thompson, and Dan Zahavi, 114-56. Oxford University Press, Oxford. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:
oso/9780199593804.003.0005
Dreyfus, Georges, and Evan Thompson. 2007. Asian Perspectives: Indian Theories of Mind. In The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness, edited by Philip David Zelazo, Morris Moscovitch and Evan Thompson, 89-114. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Duerlinger, James. 2003. Indian Buddhist Theories of Persons: Vasubandhu’s Refutation of the Theory of a Self. RoutledgeCurzon, London.
Gallagher, Shaun. 2000. Philosophical Conceptions of the Self: Implications for Cognitive Science. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 4(1): 14-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1364-6613(99)01417-5
Ganeri, Jonardon. 2007. The Concealed Art of the Soul. Oxford University Press, New York. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199202416.001.0001
Ganeri, Jonardon. 2012. The Self: Naturalism, Consciousness and the First-person Stance. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Gar?eld, Jay L. 2015. Engaging Buddhism: Why It Matters to Philosophy. Oxford University Press, New York. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190204334.001.0001
Gethin, Rupert. 1992. The m?tik?s: Memorization, Mindfulness, and the List. In In the Mirror of Memory: Re?ections on Mindfulness and Remembrance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, edited by J. Gyatso, 149-72. SUNY Press, New York.
Gethin, Rupert. 1998. The Foundations of Buddhism. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York.
Gethin, Rupert. 2004. He Who Sees Dhamma Sees Dhammas: Dhamma in Early Buddhism. Journal of Indian Philosophy 32: 513-42.
Gold, Johnathon. 2014. Paving the Great Way: Vasubandhu’s Unifying Buddhist Philosophy. Columbia University Press, New York.
Jha, Ganganatha (trans.). 1984. The Ny?ya-s?tras of Gautama with the Bh??ya of V?tsy?yana and the V?rttika of Uddyotakara. Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi.
Kane, M.J., L.H. Brown, J.C. McVay, P.J. Silvia, I. Myin-Germeys, and T.R. Kwapil. 2007. For Whom the Mind Wanders, and When: An Experience-sampling Study of Working Memory and Executive Control in Daily Life. Psychol. Sci. 18: 614-21. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01948.x
Killingsworth, Matthew A., and Daniel T. Gilbert. 2010. A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind. Science 330: 932. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1192439
Lewis, David. 1973. Causation. Journal of Philosophy 70: 556-67.
Lewis, David. 1995. Should a Materialist Believe in Qualia? Australasian Journal of Philosophy 73: 140-44.
Lewis, David. 1997. Finkish Dispositions. Philosophical Quarterly 47: 143-58.
Mumford, Stephen. 1998. Dispositions. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Neisser, Ulric. 1988. Five Kinds of Self Knowledge. Philosophical Psychology 1: 35-59. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515088808572924
Peacocke, Christopher. 1999. Being Known. Oxford University Press, Oxford. https://doi.org/10.1093/0198238606.001.0001
Pruden, Leo. 1988. Abhidharmako?abh?yam. English translation of Poussin, Louis de la Vallée (1923–1931[1980]), L’Abhidharmako?a de Vasubandhu. 6 vols.Institut Belge des Hautes Études Chinoises, Bruxelles. Asian Humanities Press, Berkeley.
Schooler, J.W., J. Smallwood, K. Christoff, T.C. Handy, E.D. Reichle, and M.A. Sayette. 2011. Meta-awareness, Perceptual Decoupling and the Wandering Mind. Trends Cogn. Sci. 15: 319-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2011.05.006
Strawson, Galen. 1999. The Self. In Models of the Self, edited by S. Gallagher and J. Shear, 1-24. Academic Imprint, Exeter.
Strawson, Galen. 2003. What Is the Relation Between an Experience, the Subject of an Experience, and the Content of the Experience? Philosophical Issues 13: 279-315.
Strawson, Peter F. 1959. Individuals. Methuen, London.
Strawson, Peter F. 1992. Analysis and Metaphysics. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Thompson, Evan. 2014. Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy. Columbia University Press, New York. https://doi.org/10.7312/thom13709
Zahavi Dan. 2005. Subjectivity and Selfhood: Investigating the First-person Perspective. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Zahavi Dan. 2011. The Experiential Self: Objections and Clari?cations. In Self, No Self? Perspectives from Analytical, Phenomenological, and Indian Traditions. Edited by M. Siderits, E. Thompson, and D. Zahavi. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 56-78.
Zahavi Dan. 2012. The Time of the Self. Grazer Philosophische Studien 84: 143-59.
Published
2017-04-06
Issue
Section
East West Dialogues in Buddhism
License
Equinox Publishing Ltd.
How to Cite
Chadha, M. (2017). The Abhidharma Version of No-Self Theory. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 29(3), 223-241. https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.31485
