The Origins and Sociology of the Early Buddhist Philosophy of Moral Determinism

Abstract

DETERMINISM not only implies a check upon and regulation of the operative efficacy of the human will but also holds that the life of man is subjected to powerful forces which are almost beyond his control. These forces not only influence and condition his life but even determine it. Although determinism is different from the religious and popular conception of fatalism, which implies almost the total futility of the endeavors of a man, it also seriously enunciates a vital domination over the actions and life of man. It does not absolutely neutralize the spontaneity and freedom of man, but it does emphasize that human efforts and will work in a framework which is mighty and even uncontrollable. Some thinkers have pleaded for the philosophy of climatology or economic determinism, while others advocate a theological or absolutistic determinism.* ' In the dominant systems of Indian thought2 it has been held that the merits or demerits of the actions performed by a man, and the psychological impulsions behind them, accumulate, and, in the course of time, acquire such a vital potency that they determine the life of the man. Determinism serves to counter the tendency of explaining the facts in the universe and history in terms of a random conglomeration of atoms or the arbitrary fiat of an omnipotent God, who dispenses predestination. It pleads for the acceptance of a law-governed world and seeks to establish the determination of cosmic and historical operations in terms of laws. There is also a form of determinism,