The Buddha and Free Will
Doug's Dharma Doug's Dharma
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 Published On Feb 5, 2018

What might the Buddha have thought about free will? To answer that question we'll look at the history of the concept in Western philosophy, and then consider how it applies to early Buddhism. We will find that the Buddha would have accepted a couple of related senses of the phrase.

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✅ Suttas mentioned:

The Characteristic of Nonself (SN 22.59): https://suttacentral.net/en/sn22.59
The Brahmajāla Sutta (DN 1.67-70, views 17-18): https://suttacentral.net/en/dn1
The Sāmaññaphala Sutta (DN 2.20, on Makkhali Gosāla): https://suttacentral.net/en/dn2
Sectarian (AN 3.61.3): https://suttacentral.net/en/an3.61
Fetters (AN 10.13): https://suttacentral.net/en/an10.13

✅ Also:
Asaf Federman's paper "What Kind of Free Will Did the Buddha Teach?" in Philosophy East and West 1/2010.

Photo of Daniel Dennett from Wikipedia, by Dmitry Rozhkov.

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