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1913 Buddhism and the Freedom of the Will: Pali and Mahayanist ResponsesIn and D. Shier M. O.’Rourke J. K. Campbell (ed.), Freedom and Determinism, Mit Press. 2004.
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18Jay L. Garfield defends two exegetical theses regarding Hume's Treatise on Human Nature. The first is that Book II is the theoretical foundation of the Treatise. Second, Garfield argues that we cannot understand Hume's project without an appreciation of his own understanding of custom, and in particular, without an appreciation of the grounding of his thought about custom in the legal theory and debates of his time.
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18Public TrustIn Cynthia Townley & P. Maleka (eds.), Trust: Analytic and Applied Perspectives., Rodopi. 2013.We often think of trust as an interpersonal relation, and of the distinction between trust and reliance as a distinction between kinds of interpersonal relations. Indeed this is often the case. I may trust one colleague but not find her reliable; rely on another but find him untrustworthy; both trust and rely on my best friend; neither trust nor rely on my dean. One of us has discussed the nature of such relations and distinctions at length. But trust is not only an interpersonal matter. Human s…Read more
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18This is not a general essay on the craft and institution of translation, though some of the claims and arguments I proffer here might generalize. I am concerned in particular with the activity of the translation of Asian Buddhist texts into English in the context of the current extensive transmission of Buddhism to the West, in the context of the absorption of cultural influences of the West by Asian Buddhist cultures, and in the context of the increased interaction between Buddhist practitioner…Read more
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18Māyā and Mokṣa: Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya's Spiritual Philosophy as a Vedāntin Critique of KantPhilosophy East and West 74 (1): 3-25. 2024.Abstract:Subject As Freedom (1930) is correctly regarded as Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya's magnum opus. But this text relies on a set of ideas and develops from a set of concerns that KCB develops more explicitly in essays written both before and after that text, which might be regarded as its intellectual bookends. These ideas are important and fascinating in their own right. They also illuminate KCB's engagement with Kant and with the Vedānta tradition as well as his understanding of freedom i…Read more
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18Cittamātra as Conventional Truth from Śāntarakṣita to MiphamJournal of Buddhist Philosophy 2 263-280. 2016.
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16The dog: relevance and rationalityIn J. Dunn & A. Gupta (eds.), Truth or Consequences: Essays in Honor of Nuel Belnap, Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 97--109. 1990.
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16Mental representation is a metaphor. It has perhaps become so entrenched that it appears to have been frozen, and it is easy to lose sight of its metaphorical character. Literally, a representation is a re-presentation, a symbol that stands for something else because that thing canÂ’t be with us. I send my parents photos of the grandchildren because e-mail is cheaper than air tickets. I consult a map of Adelaide to find the shortest route to the philosophy department because wandering throug…Read more
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15Enthusiasts for the scientific character of Buddhism wax eloquent regarding the insights that the Buddhist tradition can deliver to cognitive science, and the contributions that meditative technique can make to understanding cognitive and affective processes. To be sure, there are contributions in this direction, though their significance may be overestimated. Less attention is paid to the value of cognitive theory for developing Buddhist insights in the 21 st Century, and the role of science in…Read more
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15Sweet Reason: A Field Guide to Modern LogicWiley-Blackwell. 1995._Sweet Reason: A Field Guide to Modern Logic, 2nd Edition_ offers an innovative, friendly, and effective introduction to logic. It integrates formal first order, modal, and non-classical logic with natural language reasoning, analytical writing, critical thinking, set theory, and the philosophy of logic and mathematics. An innovative introduction to the field of logic designed to entertain as it informs Integrates formal first order, modal, and non-classical logic with natural language reasoning…Read more
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15The Moon Points Back (edited book)Oxford University Press USA. 2015.The Moon Points Back comprises essays by both established scholars in Buddhist and Western philosophy and young scholars contributing to cross-cultural philosophy. It continues the program of Pointing at the Moon, integrating the approaches and insights of contemporary logic and analytic philosophy along with those of Buddhist Studies in order to engage with Buddhist ideas in a contemporary voice.The essays in the volume focus on the Buddhist notion of emptiness, exploring its relationship to co…Read more
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14Minds Without Fear: Philosophy in the Indian RenaissanceOup Usa. 2017.Minds Without Fear is an intellectual and cultural history of India during the period of British occupation. It demonstrates that this was a period of renaissance in India in which philosophy--both in the public sphere and in the Indian universities--played a central role in the emergence of a distinctively Indian modernity. The book is also a history of Indian philosophy. It demonstrates how the development of a secular philosophical voice facilitated the construction of modern Indian society a…Read more
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14Sellarsian Synopsis: Integrating the ImagesHumana Mente 5 (21). 2012.Most discussion of Sellars’ deployment of the distinct images of “man-in-the-world” in Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man focus entirely on the manifest and the scientific images. But the original image is important as well. In this essay I explore the importance of the original image to the Sellarsian project of naturalizing epistemology, connecting Sellars’ insights regarding this image to recent work in cognitive development.
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12On the Importance of Philosophical Recovery: Thoughts on Across Black SpacesJournal of Applied Philosophy 38 (4): 545-551. 2021.ABSTRACT While—as Yancy himself reminds us regularly in this book—philosophy may begin in wonder, it cannot end there. Philosophical thought must move from wonder to commitment, whether that commitment is to something as abstract as the nature of numbers or as morally pressing as the response to racism. Philosophy, however intellectual an exercise it may be, is only worth pursuing if it addresses what is important to us, and only if in philosophizing we commit ourselves to making a difference, t…Read more
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1114. Swaraj and Swadeshi: Gandhi and Tagore on Ethics, Development, and FreedomIn Roger T. Ames Peter D. Hershock (ed.), Value and Values: Economics and Justice in an Age of Global Interdependence, University of Hawaii Press. pp. 259-271. 2015.
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11Indian PhilosophersIn Robert L. Arrington (ed.), A Companion to the Philosophers, Blackwell. 2017.As is the case with most pre‐modern philosophers of India, very little historical information is available about Bhartṛ‐hari. There are many interesting legends, some turned into extensive plays and poems, current about him. However, it is impossible to determine on their basis even whether there was only one philosopher called Bhartṛ‐hari. The appellation “philosopher” could unquestionably be applied to the author or authors of at least two Sanskrit works that are commonly ascribed to Bhartṛ‐ha…Read more
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9Macnamara John. A border dispute. The place of logic in psychology. Bradford books. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1986, xv + 212 pp (review)Journal of Symbolic Logic 53 (1): 314-317. 1988.
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9Meaning and truth: essential readings in modern semantics (edited book)Paragon House. 1991.Contemporary semantic theory rests upon lively theoretical disputes about the meaning of words, the proper form of semantic theory, and, ultimately, on the very possibility of semantic theory itself. Jay L. Garfield and Murray Kiteley have collected, in Meaning and Truth, the definitive articles on the history of semantics and the primary voices debating the interpretation of description, the theory of truth intensionality, the structure of meaning, natural language, and the relation of semantic…Read more
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9Pointing at the Moon: Buddhism, Logic, Analytic Philosophy (edited book)Oup Usa. 2009.This volume collects essays by philosophers and scholars working at the interface of Western philosophy and Buddhist Studies. Many have distinguished scholarly records in Western philosophy, with expertise in analytic philosophy and logic, as well as deep interest in Buddhist philosophy. Others have distinguished scholarly records in Buddhist Studies with strong interests in analytic philosophy and logic. All are committed to the enterprise of cross-cultural philosophy and to bringing the insigh…Read more
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8Review of KC Chakrabarti, Definition and Induction: A Historical and Comparative Study (review)Metascience 6 (1): 134-138. 1997.
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8Particularity and Principle: The Structure of Moral KnowledgeIn Brad Hooker & Margaret Olivia Little (eds.), Moral particularism, Oxford University Press. 2000.
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8Book reviews (review)Philosophical Psychology 11 (1): 89-109. 1998.How to build a theory in cognitive science. Valerie Gray Hardcastle. Albany: State University of New York. Press, 1996Language, thought, and consciousness. Peter Carruthers. Cambridge: Cambridge University. Press, 1996. ISBN 0–521–48158–9 (hc)Young children's knowledge about thinking. John H. Flavell, Frances L. Green & Eleanor R. Flavell with Commentary by Paul L. Harris & Janet Wilde Astington. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 1995, 60 (1, Serial No, 243) Chicago: T…Read more
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Smith CollegeDepartment of Philosophy
Buddhist Studies
Harvard Divinity SchoolDistinguished Professor
Northampton, Massachusetts, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Cognitive Science |
Asian Philosophy |
History of Western Philosophy |
Logic and Philosophy of Logic |
Areas of Interest
Epistemology |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |
History of Western Philosophy |