ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 23, 2016
Facing Death from a Safe
Distance: Saṃvega
and Moral Psychology
Lajos Brons
Nihon University and Lakeland University
Saṃvega
is a morally motivating state of shock that—according to
Buddhaghosa—should be evoked by meditating on death. What kind of mental
state it is exactly, and how it is morally motivating is unclear,
however. This article presents a theory of saṃvega—what it is and how it
works—based on recent insights in psychology. According to dual process
theories there are two kinds of mental processes organized in two
“systems”: the experiential, automatic system 1, and the rational,
controlled system 2. In normal circumstances, system 1 does not believe
in its own mortality. Saṃvega
occurs when system 1 suddenly realizes that the “subjective self” will
inevitably die (while system 2 is already disposed to affirm the
subject’s mortality). This results in a state of shock that is morally
motivating under certain conditions. Saṃvega
increases mortality salience and produces insight in suffering, and in
combination with a strengthened sense of loving-kindness or empathic
concern both mortality salience and insight in suffering produce moral
motivation.
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