Philosopher's Zone Where am I? Buddhist philosophy and the self
May 12, 2026
Bronwyn Finnegan, associate professor of philosophy at ANU who studies Buddhist thought on selfhood. She traces the long debate between reductionist and emergentist views. Topics include the five aggregates, Pudgalavada relational claims, Vasubandhu’s causal series, memory as causal succession, and how agency, moral responsibility and continuity fit into Buddhist frameworks.
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Two Competing Buddhist Accounts Of The Self
- Buddhist non-self debates split into reductionism that analyzes persons as momentary aggregates and emergentism that treats persons as irreducible relational structures.
- Bronwyn Finnegan traces reductionism to Abhidharma and Vasubandhu and emergentism to Pudgalavada, framing the core dispute as explaining agency and continuity.
Reductionist Criteria For Ultimate Reality
- Reductionists treat five aggregates as exhaustive and ultimately real at a momentary level while persons are conventionally real.
- Ultimate reality is defined by irreducibility, intrinsic nature, causal efficacy, and momentariness in Vasubandhu-style accounts.
What Emergentists Mean By A Person
- Pudgalavada emergentism claims persons are real but neither distinct from nor identical to aggregates, suggesting a relational structure dependent on processes.
- Critics press emergentists to specify the dependence relation without granting causal autonomy.