Abstract

In 1984, Derek Parfit, in his book Reasons and Persons, argued in favor of the reductionist view about persons, which at that time aroused a great deal of controversy. Although Parfit’s views were not accepted by the majority of the exponents of Western analytic philosophy, in Personal Identity and Buddhist Philosophy Mark Siderits observes that Parfit did not abandon the view that “the existence of a person just consists in the existence of a brain and a body and the occurrence of a series of physical and psychological events”. While Parfit was aware of the fact that the Buddha also maintained a similar view, neither he nor his critics were aware of the fact that “in the Classical Indian controversy...