Nishi Kumari1 and Dr. Jeetendra Yadav2
1Research scholar, Department of Philosophy, University of lucknow
E-mail: nishigupta3654@gmail.com Orcid id: 0009-0001-8587-2937
2Assistant Professor, Mahamaya Govt. Degree college, Mahona, Lucknow, Affiliated with University of Lucknow,
Email: jeetenyadava@gmail.com
Issue: Volume 2 No. 1 (March 2026) Anubodhan
DOI: https://doi.org/10.65885/anubodhan.v2n1.2026.017
Abstract
In Buddhist philosophy, the problem of causation is inseparable from the explanation of change, suffering, and the possibility of nirvana. From its earliest teachings, Buddhism rejects accounts grounded in a permanent self or enduring substance and instead articulates causation through the doctrine of Pratītyasamutpāda, according to which phenomena arise and cease in dependence upon conditions. Although this doctrine occupies a central position in Buddhist thought, its adequacy as a coherent philosophical theory of causation invites critical examination.
This paper therefore examines whether Pratītyasamutpāda can be understood as a coherent philosophical theory of causation and to what extent it remains philosophically defensible.
This study analyses the formulation of dependent origination in early Buddhist texts, its systematic development in Abhidharma philosophy, and its critical reinterpretation in Madhyamaka thought. Particular attention is given to key philosophical problems: the issue of causal continuity in the absence of a permanent self, the question of causal efficacy within a framework of momentariness, and the problem of moral responsibility in a non-self doctrine. The paper argues that while Pratītyasamutpāda offers a powerful critique of substance-based theories of causation and presents a fundamentally relational account of conditionality, it encounters unresolved conceptual tensions when interpreted as a complete realist theory of causation. Dependent origination is therefore better understood as a philosophically significant explanatory framework within Buddhist thought rather than as a fully articulated metaphysical theory of causation.
Keywords: Pratītyasamutpāda, Buddhist Causation, Dependent Origination, Madhyamaka Philosophy, Conditionality
How to cite: Kumari, N., Yadav, J. (2026). The Buddhist Theory of Causation (Pratītyasamutpāda) : A Critical Analysis, 2(1), 173–187. https://doi.org/10.65885/anubodhan.v2n1.2026.017