16.7 Of Matter as Morally Good or Bad (KV16.7)

Controverted Point: That material qualities are (i.) good or moral, (ii.) bad or immoral.

Theravādin: Do you mean to imply that material qualities have a mental object, and the properties of mental adverting, of adjustment, etc.? Surely you agree that the opposite is true? And that, whereas you can predicate those things of the three moral motives or conditions, and of the five moral controlling powers, they do not fit the case of material qualities … .

(ii.) The same argument holds good for material qualities as immoral.

Mahiṁsāsaka, Sammitiya: But is not karma (moral action) of body and of speech either good or bad? Surely then material qualities engaged therein are also either good or bad?

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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