This thesis explores the relationship between the two seminal Buddhist concepts of paticcasamuppada and kamma, and draws out the implications of their relationship for human development and freedom of choice. By interpreting paticcasamuppada as a "middle way" between the extremes of determinism and chance-origination, it becomes clear that kamma also is neither completely determined, nor subject purely to chance. In coming to an understanding of the relationship between paticcasamuppada, kamma and freedom of choice, what emerges from our study of the Pali Nikayas is a conception of paticcasamuppada as a process of conditioning in which both linear and mutual causality are interwoven. The second part of this thesis is concerned with how two modern Buddhist scholars, Joanna Macy and David Kalupahana, interpret some of the problems which are presented in the first part.
