An examination of Charles Hartshorne's process philosophy of religion in the light of Abhidhamma Buddhist philosophy

This study argues that Hartshorne, after he makes a promising beginning in developing a metaphysics that allows for the attainment of value, fails adequately to distinguish success from failure in the attainment of value. This study then further argues that Abhidhamma Buddhist philosophy, which begins with metaphysical doctrines which are remarkably similar to Hartshorne's doctrines, draws conclusions which are both more consistent with these doctrines and more conducive to distinguishing value from dis-value. This study finds that Hartshorne's beginning is especially promising in that he reformulates process philosophy to meet the demands of contemporary logic and semantics. Despite criticisms of metaphysics from logicians and semanticists Hartshorne ably defends the rationality of metaphysical claims, in particular claims concerning unit occasions and how they allow for freedom, which is crucial for the attainment of value. Following this beginning, however, Hartshorne's philosophy gets into difficulty through the implication that whatever occurs is an instance of value. The ideal of this philosophy, the divinity, is present to the events of the world to ensure that they instantiate value. This study then argues that Abhidhamma Buddhist philosophy is useful for correcting this difficulty. The ideal of this philosophy, Nibbana, is a goal that is possible to attain, but the attainment of the goal is dependent on individual effort. This effort, in turn, follows criteria which indicate to the individual whether the quest for the goal is succeeding or failing. These criteria, in turn, follow principles of intelligibility, testability, and meaning; one finds that there is a goal to attain, and a path leading to the goal, through individual verification. The relation of the path to the goal, in turn, is an intelligible causal relation. Not only, then, does Abhidhamma Buddhist philosophy succeed where Hartshorne fails in determining the practical matter of value, but also in determining the theoretical matter of satisfying logical and semantic criteria. This study concludes that a philosophy needs to determine truth in order to determine value, and Abhidhamma Buddhist philosophy is more promising with respect to determining truth than Hartshornian process philosophy.