진화론과 불교사상의 접점 -『이기적 유전자』와 업종자를 중심으로-

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to examine the possibilities,whether Buddhist theories are compatible with the basic ideas of the Evolutionism, presented in Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene. For this purpose I began to sketch the different and similar aspects of the two traditions: the similarities lie mainly in the fact that they do not presuppose any teleological design in explaining the changes of the phenonenon. As far as the discrepancies are concerned, Buddhist traditions, basing themselves on the mind-body dualism, try to explain the issues of the ‘living being’ and the surrounding world,whereas the main stream of the Evolutionism defends the materialist viewpoint for that matter. Recognizing these factors, I focus on three points in order to discuss the relevant topics between two traditions:(1) on the descriptions of the origin of the life on earth, (2) on the role of DNA in the molecular biology, and of the corresponding Buddhist theories, particularly in the Yogācāra Buddhism, (3) on the problem of the altruism and Buddhist Ethics. In case of (1), I try to point out that the main difference of the Buddhism to the Evolutionism depends on the acceptance of the ‘consciousness (vijñāna)’ as the leading principle of living beings. In case of (2), the role of DNA,which is central to the evolution of living beings, can be compared with and interpreted as a kind of ‘latencies of karman (karma-bīja). I discuss also the difficulties arising in the interpretation of DNA as the latencies of karman. In case of (3), I would show that there are no theoretical obstacles to undermine the altruistic behaviors of each person, notwithstanding the identification of the DNA with karma-bīja. In this respect, it shares the common ethical ground with Dawkins,who sees the altruistic behaviors possible at the level of living organism, though at the level of the DNA it is solely motivated by its ‘selfishness’. In the present paper, I have to restrict the source materials to the very limited number, i.e. to The Selfish Gene as a representative work of the molecule biology on the one hand and Yogācāra Buddhism on the other hand, so as not to violate the obscurity caused by the vastness of the research objects.