NONMONOTHEISTIC CONCEPTIONS 115Some consequences
1 Action
Suppose that, as we would ordinarily say, Jamie fires three shots at Josie in
order to scare her into revealing where her parents have hidden their life
savings – shot 1 at time T1, shot 2 at time T2, shot 3 at time T3. On the
bundle account, what fired shot 1 was a simultaneous bundle that exists only
at T1; similarly for shot 2 and a simultaneous bundle that exists only at T2
as well as shot 3 and a simultaneous bundle that exists only at T3. One
“element” fires shot 1, another fires shot 2, another fires shot 3. No
simultaneous bundle fires all three shots. A succession of bundles fires shots
only insofar as its simultaneous-bundle members fire shots; it just is those
members. On a Jain account, a self-conscious substance fires the three shots
- Jamie is numerically the same at T1, T2, and T3, and at each time he fires a
shot.
2 Memory
Suppose that, as we would ordinarily say, Jamie is arrested for firing shots at
Josie, and sadly remembers his wickedness toward her. On the Jain account,
numerically the same self-conscious being who fired the shots thinks of himself
as having done so. Memory^35 of performing an action involves numerically the
same self-conscious substance who performed it thinking about himself having
done so. On a Buddhist account, (reliable) memory is a matter of a later
simultaneous bundle containing a state that represents an earlier simultaneous
bundle acting in a certain manner, where it is true of the earlier simultaneous
bundle that it did so act, and where the earlier and later simultaneous bundles
are elements in the same succession of bundles.
As we have noted, the doctrines of reincarnation and karma require that
appropriate recompense (weal or woe) come to each person for her own
previous actions – actions not atypically in some lifetime prior to the life
currently being lived.^36 Not only Mahavira but the Buddha is represented as
remembering, upon becoming enlightened, all of his past reincarnational life.
The Jaina and Buddhist traditions, then, provide us with a sharply
contrasting account of what a person is – a person at a time and a person over
time. For the Jaina traditions, a person at a time is a self-conscious substance and
over time is a self-conscious substance that exists continuously. For the
Buddhist traditions, a person at a time is a bundle of momentary states and over
time is a sequence of such bundles. So we have two quite different views of what