16.5 Of Matter as a Moral Condition (hetu) (KV16.5)

Controverted Point: That material qualities are moral conditions.

Theravādin: Your view implies that (i.) material qualities must act as one or other of the six motives of moral or immoral conduct; (ii.) they have a mental object or idea, having the properties of mental adverting, adjustment, etc. From both of these implications you dissent, hence you cannot maintain your position.

Indeed, you are ready to maintain the contrary of (ii.), that proposition being quite true when applied to the six moral conditions, but untrue of material qualities.

Uttarāpathaka: But are not the four primary qualities conditions of the secondary material qualities that are derived from them? Of course you assent. Hence, the four being material, material qualities are conditions however you understand “conditions”.

The Points of Controversy, an English translation of the Pali Abhidhamma Kathāvatthu. Translated by Shwe Zan Aung and C.A.F. Rhys Davids. First published by Pali Text Society, 1915.

This SuttaCentral edition was prepared by Manfred Wierich and Ven. Vimala and proofread by Josephine Tobin. Some changes were introduced:

Abbreviations, i.e., those of cited works and the participants in the controversies, were expanded.

Cross-references were linked.

Some typographic changes were introduced, among others, i.e.: the phonetic symbol “ŋ” was changed to the Pāli diacritical letter “ṃ”, “ô” to “o”, single quotes to double quotes, and “:—” to “:”.

Letter-spacing with fixed spaces was replaced with bold font.

The corrigenda were merged into the text. Some could not be resolved, though.

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