My proposal is that instead of a binary approach to jiva/ajiva, or souled and soulless, the Buddhist and Jain ideas of ensoulment are open to an analog interpretation in line with neuroscience and ethology. From a Keynote Address delivered at the International Jain Conference at Claremont Lincoln University, August 24-25, 2012. The Moral Significance of Harming a Person …...
Buddhists and Jains believe there is moral and evolutionary continuity between animals, humans and “gods,” and that all creatures can evolve from animal to posthuman. This places them closer to the progressive optimist and posthumanist aspects of European Enlightenment thought, than followers of the Abrahamic faiths. The Buddhist emphasis on anatta or no-self is also …...
