Hindu Philosophy Unit
The Hindu Philosophy unit of the American Academy of Religion is pleased to invite proposals for the following sessions to be held at this year’s annual meeting in Boston:
1. Philosophical Roundtable. This format brings together several participants to discuss a single philosophical argument or closely related set of arguments. This year's roundtable will focus on yogic perception, or the idea that certain people have direct knowledge of objects or truths beyond the reach of ordinary sense-perception. Our starting-point will be Kumārila’s arguments, in the Ślokavārttika, against the possibility of yogic perception. Participants are welcome to consider responses (or possible responses) from any philosophical school (Yoga, Jaina, Nyāya, Vedānta, etc.). The goal is not to have traditional presentations but to create a space for lively and rigorous discussion. In lieu of traditional paper proposals, therefore, we instead invite prospective participants to offer a short assessment of Kumārila’s arguments, either on their own or with reference to another thinker or school.
2. Traditional Papers Session. For this session we are looking for individual paper proposals rather than full panel proposals. This year’s annual theme for AAR, “freedom,” is especially relevant to Hindu philosophical traditions, so we especially encourage proposals on this topic (which, in addition to traditional discussions of mokṣa, might also include modern political philosophy, theological discussions of divine freedom and/or human free will, etc.). We are also open to proposals on other topics, including but not limited to verbal testimony, omniscience, mereology, “darśana” as a category, philosophical discussions of skill/expertise, philosophy of language, philosophy and literature, and philosophy in vernacular texts.
3. Co-sponsored Session on Hindu and Islamic Philosophy. We are also planning a possible co-sponsored session exploring Hindu and Islamic philosophy (including philosophical theology and mysticism) in a comparative light. Papers need not be explicitly comparative; they may focus on either tradition, as long as they are accessible to non-specialists, with the goal of allowing comparison to emerge in the discussion period. Our aim is to have the session focus on either a clearly defined topic (e.g., the nature of the soul, divine freedom and/or human free will, "non-dualism"/"monism" as comparative categories, the status of universals, divine causality, proofs of God's existence) or a clearly articulated question (e.g., "What does it mean to 'know' something?”, "How do beings endure through time?”). If interested, please contact Michael S. Allen, msa2b@virginia.edu.
This unit aims to bring together scholars working on Hindu philosophy broadly construed, including not only the classical schools of Nyāya, Mīmāṃsā, Vedānta, etc., but a wide range of intellectual traditions from the Vedic period to the present day. These traditions are vast and varied, engaging with questions of epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of language, aesthetics, theodicy, ritual theory, ethics, and political philosophy, not to mention areas that have, arguably, no direct parallel in Western thought. Our goals are (1) to advance research in Hindu philosophical traditions, encouraging new approaches and new topics within the field; (2) to explore interactions and influences between Hindu philosophy and other traditions of South Asian philosophy (Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, Islamic, etc.); and (3) to contribute to the study of cross-cultural philosophy at the AAR.