buddhistethics posted: "ISSN
1076-9005 Volume 25, 2018 A Role for Primordial Wisdom in the Buddhist Free
Will Controversy Marie Friquegnon William Paterson University In Buddhist
Perspectives on Free Will (Repetti), I set forth my position on Buddhism and
free will in te"
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New post on Journal of Buddhist Ethics
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ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 25, 2018
A Role for Primordial Wisdom
in the Buddhist Free Will Controversy
Marie Friquegnon
William Paterson University
In Buddhist Perspectives on
Free Will (Repetti), I set forth my position on Buddhism
and free will in terms of three ways of understanding the issue of
freedom in Buddhism. Here I first offer a sketch of that threefold
analysis, and then I analyze certain key passages in some of the other
essays in that collection through that lens. Each of these three ways
of understanding Buddhist conceptions of freedom harmonizes with some
of the essays. I then analyze Śāntideva’s view on the acceptability of
the action of the bodhisattva who shot a pirate to save 500 people; I
contrast that with Śāntarakṣita’s view; and I try to dissolve an
apparent contradiction. I then take Śāntideva’s use of upāya
(skillful means) in the pirate case and apply it to his position on
free will. Lastly, I conclude by suggesting that the way out of some of
the discrepancies in the analysis of free will in Buddhism may be
resolved by appealing to primordial wisdom as a hypothetical construct,
making reference to what appears to be an analogous use of the concept
of a hypothetical construct that may be found in Aquinas.
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