The UHM Department of Philosophy Colloquium Series Presents

The Causes of Suffering in Buddhist Philosophy: Craving for Feelings vs. Ignorance of Selflessness

by Dr. Sean Smith

Date: Thursday, February 12, 2026
Time: 4:00 PM
Location: Sakamaki C-308

This presentation explores an interpretative dilemma about how to understand two strands
of analysis of the problem of suffering in Buddhist Philosophy. The first strand claims that
craving (tanhā) is the cause of suffering (dukkha). This is the second noble truth and a core
claim of all Buddhist philosophical psychology. In essence, suffering is our fault, it’s an
attitude problem. When we completely relinquish the problematic attitude, we become
free from suffering. The second strand claims that our most fundamental predicament –
one that underwrites and in fact, explains, the first strand – is that craving is a problem
because we remain ignorant (avijja) of fundamental metaphysical facts about the nature of
the world. Specifically, we remain ignorant of the fact that we are selfless (anattā) persons.
When knowledge of this metaphysical fact is achieved, the underlying motivation for
craving disappears and we become liberated from suffering. I propose an alternative
interpretation whereby craving for feelings is primary and ignorance of selflessness is
derivative, thus reshaping how we understand the relation between affective
phenomenology and the metaphysics of selfhood in Buddhist philosophy.

Dr. Sean Smith is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.