What Does It Mean for God to “Exist”? An Experiment in Hindu/Islamic Comparative Philosophy

This session focuses on the question of God’s existence: not whether God exists, but how God exists. What does it mean to refer to God (or to Allāh, Brahman, or Īśvara) as “existing” or as “being”? What is the relationship between Divine Being and non-divine beings? Do rocks and trees and people exist in the same sense that God exists, or does the word have different meanings in each context? Are there gradations within reality/existence/being? The papers will discuss a variety of Hindu and Islamic views; the aim is to provide a model for comparative philosophy that is attentive to historical context as well as to internal diversity within the traditions studied. Each presentation will be kept accessible to non-specialists, and short enough to allow time for discussion.