Why Buddhists Are Not Interested in the Free Will Problem

Paul Kjellberg

The Buddhist tradition as a whole, which denies the existence of a self, has never displayed interest in the debate over free will and determinism. I raise this example to ask whether the contradiction we see presupposes some notion of self and, if so, whether that is a problem. My talk gives a brief presentation of the theory of karma, which seems straightforwardly deterministic, and then reviews some of the specific forms of selfhood that are denied. My hope is that we can spend most of the time in discussion.