A group blog of scholars exploring Indian philosophy
I received the Call for Abstracts below from Scott Stroud (University of Texas at Austin). He added, “The call for abstracts is deliberately wide-ranging, since there are so many useful angles to consider here. Approaches from a range of different Continue reading Call for Abstracts: Pragmatism and India
The great Buddhist poet Aśvaghoṣa famously tells the story of the Buddha’s father, the king, who tried to keep his son as an heir rather than a monk by isolating him from all the bad things in the world. Of Continue reading The gap is not glorious
Manas plays multiple roles for Kumārila and it is important to keep them apart: manas connecting sense faculty to ātman while sensing an external object (see ŚV pratyakṣa 160ab) manas working itself as a sense faculty for pain and pleasure Continue reading The role of manas in perception according to Kumārila
Readers, I’m delighted to announce that my first book is officially scheduled for publication! It’ll come out in November but you can preorder it now, and I would really like to encourage you to do so if you’re interested: preorder Continue reading Announcing my book: After Anger
Here is a message from Scott Stroud (University of Texas at Austin) about a new special issue of the journal Dewey Studies focused on John Dewey’s pragmatism and India. The first special issue of a journal dedicated to exploring John Continue reading John Dewey’s Pragmatism and India (Special Issue of Dewey Studies)
Call for Applications Postdoctoral Fellowship in Jain Studies About the Fellowship The Department of Asian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Jain Studies. The fellowship is designed to support an outstanding early-career Continue reading Postdoctoral Fellowship in Jain Studies
Karin Meyers’s work on the “damned topics” of Buddhist philosophy is most powerful on the topic of rebirth. Because that’s the place where there’s actually some reasonably powerful evidence for the “damned topic”. Where I think she goes too far Continue reading You still have to naturalize karma
My 2010 article (“Bhaṭṭa Rāmakaṇṭha’s Elaboration of Self-Awareness (svasaṃvedana), and How it Differs from Dharmakīrti’s Exposition of the Concept”) listed eight differences between self-awareness (svasaṃvedana) and I-cognition (ahampratyaya). (Pre-modern Indian philosophers could be divided into three groups, depending on whether Continue reading Is I-cognition ‘the same for everyone’?
American University philosopher Karin Meyers made an important contribution to Buddhist philosophical studies with her 2016 essay “The damned topics of Buddhist philosophy“. The essay (available free online) has never been formally published, though it clearly deserves to be: when Continue reading On the damned topics of Buddhist philosophy
My father’s memorial service was last weekend. The event was wonderful, bringing together friends and family I hadn’t seen in decades. It was heartwarming to see colleagues, neighbours, Canadian family, Indian family, American family share their fond recollections of him. Continue reading Passages of death and hope