ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with an exegesis of the fundamentals of Derek Parfit's views regarding personal identity and self. Thereafter, it discusses an attempt by David Bastow to expand this reductionist view along Buddhist lines, and provides some background information regarding Buddhist psychology to help contextualize Bastow's work. The chapter indicates some problems with the methods and conclusions of these two scholars. It concludes with an examination of some competing Buddhist schools and suggests the most promising line of further investigation. On the Buddhist view it is our intentions and desires that give rise to the very construction of this thing we call a self or a person. So it clearly makes sense to infer subjecthood from agency. The trick for the Buddhist, then, is to get rid of the desires and hence the affliction of selfhood!
