Category Archives: conference

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Workshop on “Vedānta and theology”—UPDATED 2

The following is the program for the “Vedānta and theology” workshop, UofT, December 5 and 6 2024. Careful readers will notice that we will move from Advaita Vedānta to Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta and from a literary approach to sacred texts to a theological-philosophical one.

Place: room 318, JHB

December 5:

breakfast: 8.30–9

Morning session: Vedānta, theology and literature (chaired by Srilata Raman)

—Anusha Rao (PhD student, Religion) “Literary Chameleonism and Advaita in Early Modern South India” (9–10)
—Shashank Rao (PhD student, Religion) “The Heart Lotus in the Ragale of Akka Mahadevi: A Literary Vedanta” (10.05–11.05)
—Francis X. Clooney “Between Indology and Theology: Śrīvaiṣṇava Studies in Our Times” (11.10–12.10pm)

lunch break: 12.10–1pm

Afternoon session: Vedānta theology and soteriology (chaired by Elisa Freschi)

—Sarang Patel (PhD student, Religion) “The Role of Metaphor in Material Vitality and Śaṃkara’s Advaita Vedānta” (1–2pm)
—Nick Halme (PhD student, Philosophy, Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta) “On the Epistemology of prapatti (surrender) in Veṅkaṭanātha. With Some Help from Aristotle” (2.05–3.05)
—Nirali Patel (PhD student, Philosophy, Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta) “Hidden in plain sight” (3.10–4.10)

December 6

breakfast: 8.30–9

Morning session: Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta theology (chaired by Ajay Rao)

—Vivek Shah (PhD student, Religion, “Rāmānuja and others on the uninhibited apprehension of space” (9–10)
—Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad (via zoom), “On the methodological challenges of cross-cultural theology” (10:05–11:05 am)
Closing remarks (11.10–11.30)

The 60′ slots are conceived to be up to 30′ speaking time (if one wants to speak for only 20′, no worries, but the 30′ should give one enough time to unpack ideas, read texts together and suggest areas where one wants to receive feedback) and then discussion. The discussion is meant to be supportive and aimed at helping the speaker in the next steps of developing their arguments. In the unlikely event that we run out of things to say, we’ll just add a short coffee break.

ivory statue of the good shepherd from Goa (India), 17th c., displayed at the KHM Vienna.
See here for the zoom link: https://philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/global-philosophy-research-interest-group-talk-chakravarthi-ram-prasad-lancaster/

The workshop has been made possible by the financial support of the Department of Philosophy and the organisational support of the Department of Philosophy and the Department for the Study of Religion.
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Kumārila conference

The first Kumārila Conference will be held at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto, Mississauga, from May 27th to June 1st, 2024. Venue: Maanjiwe nendamowinan building, Room 3230, UTM.

The conference will bring together experts who will lead two-hour reading sessions on key passages of Kumārila’s texts and provide participants with the necessary tools to understand the hidden gems of Kumārila’s philosophy. More in detail, these sessions will include the reading and commenting on selected passages on a given topic (e.g., adhikāra in Ṭupṭīkā 6.1) and a talk on the topic itself (e.g., mapping the intersection of adhikāra and sāmarthya) and then a discussion session. Besides, there will be opportunities for scholars and advanced students to present their research related to Kumārila in shorter sessions (60′ and 30′).

The conference will be coordinated by Elisa Freschi and Nilanjan Das and will see the participation of other experts in Sanskrit philosophy and philology. Confirmed participants (so far) include Dan Arnold, Tarinee Awasthi, Purushottama Bilimoria, Hugo David, Alessandro Graheli, Ham Hyoung Seok, Kei Kataoka, Malcolm Keating, Lawrence McCrea, Sudipta Munsi, John Nemec, Monika Nowakowska, Andrew Ollett, Parimal Patil, Akane Saito, Wintor Scott, Taisei Shida, Elliot Stern, Angela Vettikkal, Alex Watson and Kiyotaka Yoshimizu.

This will be an in-person only event, since we believe in the power of collective intelligence and collaboration and these are hardly replicable when some participants speak per Zoom and others are in the room. Please consider that we are happy to assist you with invitation letters etc. if you need them for visa purposes, just let us know!

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CfP: Conference on ineffability


CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

 Deadline: 1 February 2023

We invite proposals for papers to be given at an online conference on varieties of ineffability in ancient philosophy (spanning ancient Chinese, Graeco-Roman and Indian thought), on 18th-21st September 2023. The conference is expected to take place in the afternoon (British Summer Time) over the course of the four days.

Confirmed participants:
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Lea Cantor (Oxford)
Amber Carpenter (Yale-NUS)
Ursula Coope (Oxford)
Nilanjan Das (Toronto)
Chris Fraser (Toronto)
Dirk Meyer (Oxford)
Adrian Moore (Oxford)
Parimal Patil (Harvard) 
​Shaul Tor (KCL)

This conference will examine notions of philosophical ineffability in ancient Chinese, Graeco-Roman and Indian texts, dating up to the 9th century CE. By philosophical ineffability we mean the idea that the object of one’s philosophical inquiry, or some aspects of that inquiry itself, are wholly or to some extent beyond the reach of articulation through words. The conference will seek to explore the variety of reasons (sometimes congruent) that might lead a philosopher to adopt some version of an ineffability attitude (e.g. a particular conception of the limits of one’s capacities for knowledge, thought or linguistic expression; a particular ontological stance; secrecy in relation to the uninitiated; a conception of silence as somehow spiritually formative; reverential inhibitions, etc.) as well as the variety of reactions a philosopher might then have in the light of their ineffability attitude (e.g. a qualified or non-committal approach towards the status of one’s own speech; an appeal to metaphors, analogies or periphrasis; some version of the via negativa; silence, etc.). We are interested in how these sorts of motivations and reactions might relate to one another, as well as to wider cultural models on which they sometimes draw. Our aim is not to attempt or approximate comprehensive coverage, nor to offer a survey. Instead, the conference will seek to explore case-studies stemming from the three traditions that, in conjunction, will show something of the variety and richness of the phenomenon of ineffability in ancient philosophy. We welcome both papers that take a fresh look at famous examples and papers that examine cases that are less often discussed. It is hoped that the consideration of a diverse range of ineffability attitudes, as well as the adoption of a comparative, cross-cultural perspective, will throw into sharp relief different patterns of philosophical preoccupations and strategies, and indeed will offer one particular and productive angle from which to think about the scope and orientation of some central aspects of ancient philosophy.

CfA Eligibility & submission guidelines 

We invite abstracts of 300-500 words from researchers at all levels (abstracts from graduate students and ECRs are particularly welcome),  suitable for 30- to 35-minute presentations.

We welcome abstracts which address the themes of the conference in relation to one or more of the following ancient traditions: Chinese, Graeco-Roman and Indian. Comparative, cross-cultural and/or ‘connected’ approaches are welcome, but not necessary.
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Please submit abstracts as an email attachment to ineffabilitiesconference[at]gmail.com by 1 February 2023. Abstracts should be submitted as .pdf files and should not exceed 500 words.

Please write ‘Conference Abstract Submission’ in the subject line of your email and include your name, departmental affiliation (if relevant), email address, and the title of your paper (as well as the year in which your PhD was awarded in the case of ECRs) in your email. Abstracts should be prepared for blind review, so please ensure that your abstract is free from any identifying personal details (i.e. including title and abstract, but no information about author or institutional affiliation).

Decisions will be communicated by 15 February 2023. 

Organizers

Lea Cantor (Oxford)
Ursula Coope (Oxford)
Nilanjan Das (Toronto)
Shaul Tor (KCL) 

Contact

For more information and updates, please visit our conference website. If you wish to be kept informed about the conference (and how to attend), please register your interest here.  

For any inquiries, please contact one of the conference organizers directly.

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Call for papers for the first South Asian studies day in Bonn

I received from the organiser of the first South Asian studies day in Bonn the attached call for papers. Please note that you need to send your abstract by the end of December 2018. The conference itself will take place on the 28.6.2019 in Bonn.

Please notice also that the call for papers is in German, but that papers in both English and German are welcome.

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Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions: Call for papers for the 2019 Symposium

I received the following announcement from Brian Black:

We invite proposals for papers for the 43rd Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions, which will be hosted by Lancaster University, 12-14 April 2019.

The theme this year is ‘gender’. Our purview includes both religions of South Asian origin wherever in the world they are being practised, and those of non South Asian origin present within South Asia. We welcome papers based upon all research methods, including textual, historical, ethnographic, sociological and philosophical.

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The next IIGRS is approaching

Call for paper

International Indology Graduate Research Symposium

We are pleased to announce that the tenth International Indology Graduate Research Symposium (IIGRS 10) will take place at SOAS, University of London, on Friday the 28th and Saturday the 29th September 2018.

We look forward to receiving abstracts from graduate students, as well as early career researchers who have completed their PhD within the past five years.

Abstracts should be submitted to iigrsuk@googlemail.com by the 6th of May 2018. We will consider all Indological topics provided they are based on primary sources studied in the original language.

Abstracts should not exceed 300 words and should include:
1) Your name and institution + indication of research degrees and positions held;
2) the title of your paper;
3) a broad indication of its subject area;
4) an outline of its contents.

Please send your abstract in both Word and PDF format. More information can be found at:
https://iigrs.wordpress.com/

For further questions, contact us directly at iigrsuk@googlemail.com

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50th Annual Conference of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy

This anniversary edition, hosted by the Pedagogical University of Krakow, will take place in Krakow (Cracow), Poland, June 8-11th 2018.

CONFERENCE THEME: Power and Creativity.

Keynote Speaker: Graham Parkes (University of Vienna), “Will to Power and the Field of Dao/De: Nietzsche and Zhuangzi on Creative Experience”.

Deadline for Abstracts and Panel Proposals: January 31, 2018.

Presentation and panel proposal abstracts should be sent electronically to the Secretary of the Society, Marzenna Jakubczak, atsacp2018@gmail.com. Abstracts for presentations should be between 200-300 words, and include a filename that begins with the presenter’s last name and closes with the name of our organization and the year of the conference, e.g., ‘Berger – SACP 2018’.

Ontology of relations in Analytical Philosophy of Religion

Wednesday and Thursday there will be a conference entitled Relatio Subsistens in Verona (Italy). I am looking forward for the chance of discussing the Viśiṣṭādvaita concept of apṛthaksiddhatā ‘indissolubility’ between God and knowledge in Analytical terms.

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Dialog between Science and Philosophy: a new event

The event, sponsored by the Indian council of Philosophical Research, Delhi,  is scheduled to be held as a Discussion meeting  in the Poornaprajna Institute of Scientific Research, Bangalore from 25th Oct to 27th October.

The event is an outgrowth  of the ongoing Dialog between Science and Philosophy started  nearly a decade back in Nava Nalanda Mahavihara ‘Nalanda’ Bihar (for the past Nalanda Dialogs, please visit this link).

This Bangalore Event is actually a part of a current  project  motivated by  the lessons of the Nalanda Dialogs — a project entitled “Dialog across Traditions – Modern science and traditional Indian insight about Reality”.

 

In this event the organisers will  try to engage Indian philosophers of different schools  in a Dialog with science, will try to get the philosophers response to questions pertaining to different areas of difficulties related to foundation of science issues. Sample questions are already being distributed among the  philosophers after locating them mainly in places of traditional importance like Mithila, Varanasi and places in South India .

The process of locating scholars interested to respond to the issues are still going on.

For almost all details related to this Project as well as many events prior to the October Dialog, check this link. This site is being regularly updated to help keep track of the prior events that will lead to the Bangalore Dialog. The organisers will really appreciate suggestions  from readers about Areas of Indian Philosophy which can be better extended to meet the epistemological criteria of modern science (particularly Physical science, since the organisers come themselves from Physics).