The concept of Personal Identity first emerged in ancient Greek philosophy, developed in many different forms and continued till modern philosophy. It can simply define as be; an individual being one and the same over a period of time. There are two criteria of personal identity; physical and psychological. Both claim existence of something which continues throughout entire life time of human being which fulfills the requirement of a person to be the one and the same. On the other hand, from ancient Greek philosophy till now, we find that personal identity provides foundation for moral responsibility and judgment. Therefore, we can say that the concept of moral responsibility in traditional philosophy rests on the concept of personal identity. However, the emergence of Neuroscience in the contemporary academic field denies the entire concept of personal identity and claims that the sense of personal identity, human emotions, ambitions are not more than the behavior of vast assembly of nervous cells and their associated molecules, neurons, synapses and neurotransmitters. This raises fundamental question on moral responsibility that if there is no personal identity then why individuals responsible for their actions done in the past? This paper focuses on the Buddhist concept of morality based on Chinese Buddhist Agama texts and claims, though Buddhist texts denies personal identity but they are affirmative towards moral actions and responsibilities. The Pāli texts account three layers of arguments which asserts why one should be moral. Frist layer argues that one should be moral because moral action reduces existential suffering, second argument focuses on moral action eliminates three poisons, greed, hatred and delusion, and finally, the action itself becomes motivation for the others.
目次
English Abstract: i Chinese Abstract: iii Acknowledgement: iv Abbreviations: vi Table of Contents: viii Chapter One 1 Introduction 1 1. Background and Problems 1 2. Research Design and Methodology: 14 3. Book Review: 16 4. Research Suitability: 21 5. Expected Conclusions: 22 Chapter Two: 24 Historical Survey of Personal Identity and Its Relation with Moral Responsibility 24 6. Introduction 24 7. Definition of Personal Identity 25 8. An Initial Survey: Various Criteria of Personal Identity 29 9. Greek Philosophy: Survey of the Relation Between Personal Identity and Moral Responsibility 35 10. Contemporary Philosophy: Survey of Relation Between Personal Identity and Moral Responsibility 41 Chapter Three 48 Neuroscience and Personal Identity 48 11. Introduction: 48 12. Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience 49 13. Neuroscience Critique of Personal Identity: Francis Crick 63 14. Neuroscience Challenge to the Traditional Foundation of Morality: Patricia S. Churchland 68 ix 15. Buddhist Attitude Towards Morality: Morality Without Self 71 Chapter Four 76 Buddhist Philosophy of Not-Self and Moral Responsibility 76 1. Introduction: 76 3. Etymology of the Word Self (Ātman) 77 4. Buddhist Foundation of Morality without Self 95 5. Can The Concept of Not-self Reconcile with Moral Responsibility? 104 6. Three Layers of Moral Responsibility in Pāli 106 Chapter Five 120 Conclusions 120 Bibliography: 124
