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India sex workers rally over law
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Sex, brains, robots, Buddhism: looking for freewill
New Scientist (Vol. 178, Issue 2394, p. 46)
New Scientist (Vol. 178, Issue 2394, p. 46)
How much free will do you think you have? Does understanding how cause and effect [karma and vipaka] work in the brain undermine the very idea of it? What does it mean to talk about a "sex drive" as if it were out of our control? Are both robots and humans doomed to have only the illusion of free will? And why talk about free will at all if we only exist and act in relation to others?
These were key issues for our panel at the Royal Society for Arts during a seminar held as an introduction to New Scientist's two-part series on human nature... (criticalthinking.net.au)
Geshe Tashi Tsering In Buddhism, free will is not discussed [explicitly]. One of the main points in Buddhism -- known as dependent arising, or Dependent Origination -- is that everything and every event, including human existence, comes into existence dependent on others. My existence and your existence is dependent on others. So free will is not really discussed.
As a human being, my existence is a combination of material matter and consciousness. When this combination is put together, I can say I exist, I function. But if I search within this combination of matter and consciousness, can I find anything that I can describe as a "me" or an "I"?
These were key issues for our panel at the Royal Society for Arts during a seminar held as an introduction to New Scientist's two-part series on human nature... (criticalthinking.net.au)
Geshe Tashi Tsering In Buddhism, free will is not discussed [explicitly]. One of the main points in Buddhism -- known as dependent arising, or Dependent Origination -- is that everything and every event, including human existence, comes into existence dependent on others. My existence and your existence is dependent on others. So free will is not really discussed.
As a human being, my existence is a combination of material matter and consciousness. When this combination is put together, I can say I exist, I function. But if I search within this combination of matter and consciousness, can I find anything that I can describe as a "me" or an "I"?No, I cannot find it. I am a process, a combination of mind and matter. If we go beyond that, and try to find something within it that we can call a "me" or "I," we cannot find it. Our feelings, such as of happiness or sorrow, also come into existence as a result of causes and conditions.
For me, free will seems very much connected with the concept of the god or the soul. But Buddhism doesn't believe in that. There isn't within ourselves something we can call a soul. Simply, everything comes into existence through causes and conditions. Given the right causes and conditions, things will come into existence, events will happen. But nothing exists independently or inherently. Everything, including our identity, is dependent on others More>>
For me, free will seems very much connected with the concept of the god or the soul. But Buddhism doesn't believe in that. There isn't within ourselves something we can call a soul. Simply, everything comes into existence through causes and conditions. Given the right causes and conditions, things will come into existence, events will happen. But nothing exists independently or inherently. Everything, including our identity, is dependent on others More>>
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