Portrait of Buddha

The Buddha (Siddhārtha Gautama)

c. 5th century BC · founder of Buddhism

“There is no unchanging self”

Life and education

Born
c. 5th century BC (dates debated), Lumbinī (now Nepal)
Died
Around age 80, Kuśinagara (now India)
Practice
Awakening at Bodh Gaya after about six years of ascetic practice
Teaching
First sermon at Sarnath, then about 45 years teaching across northern India

Founder of Buddhism, traditionally said to have been born a prince of the Śākya clan. Confronted with the suffering of old age, sickness and death, he left home, practiced, and reached awakening — becoming "the Buddha," the Awakened One. His dates were traditionally put in the 6th century BC, but many scholars now place him around the 5th century BC.

His teachings were passed down orally by disciples and later compiled into scriptures. The Four Noble Truths about suffering and its end, dependent origination (everything arises from conditions), and anattā — no unchanging self — are often compared with Western debates on personal identity today.

Timeline

  1. Before leaving homeGrows up as a Śākya prince
  2. Around 29Leaves home
  3. Around 35Awakening under the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya
  4. AfterFirst sermon at Sarnath; the community forms
  5. Around 80Passes away (parinirvāṇa) at Kuśinagara

Big ideas

No-self (anattā)No unchanging self can be found in any of the five aggregates — body, feeling, perception, volition, consciousness.
Dependent originationEverything arises and passes away depending on other things. Nothing exists independently.
The Four Noble TruthsLife involves suffering (dukkha), suffering has a cause, it can end, and there's a path to its end.

If you think like them…

If you're like the Buddha, you hold the idea of a fixed "me" loosely. You see people and minds as constantly changing processes and find calm in understanding causes and conditions. You tend to believe morality is real insight into the path that reduces suffering.

Free willFree will is realFree will skeptic
Right actionConsequentialismDeontology
What morality isRealismAnti-realism
Mind & bodyPhysicalismDualism
Being youPsychologicalBodily

Rough positions on the five questions the quiz uses. These simplify each philosopher's actual views and are open to interpretation.

Thought experiments featuring them

The Disembodied MindThe Teleporter

Key works

Sources