freewill vs determinism

supporting freewill (choice in how we act - self determination)

• karma based on intentions, not actions 

• intention implies you have a right to choose

• enlightened = have supranormal powers - unconstrained by natural laws

direct counter to freewill

Buddha rejects total freewill

soft determinism / compatibilism (some actions constrained, but morally responsible)

• middle way! THIS IS BUDDHSIM

• there is conditioning, but also choice

• intention is influenced by other things - 3 fires

• not allowed to use supranormal powers

hard determinism (all behaviour governed by uncontrollable external and internal forces)

• dependent origination = everything is conditioned by something else 

• anatta = no self to have will

• when Buddha was enlightened, saw web of karma and how actions in each life propel to the next

• Buddha taught 5 types of factors at work in the cosmos causing things to happen (5 niyamas)

direct counter to hard determinism

Buddha rejects hard determinism = no moral responsibility as karma isn’t fatalistic

scholar on middleway

THANISSARO BHIKKU - “a middle path between two extremes of determinism and total freewill”

wrong question?

• question of whether we have freewill is the wrong question

• focus on how to become free (“all I teach is suffering and the cessation of suffering”)