Videos
Relativity Within and Without: Anekāntavāda in the Context of Jain Practice and its Implications for the Philosophy of Religion (Jeffery Long, Elizabethtown College)
In this presentation, Dr. Jeffery Long will discuss a set of philosophical concepts from the Jain tradition of India and explore the relevance of these concepts to contemporary issues in the philosophy of religion and the philosophy of science. This lecture is made possible by the Alka Siddhartha Dalal Endowment. It was recorded on March 30, 2023.
Can Ultimate Reality Change? Controversies Regarding the Yogic Practice School's Path to Awakening
In this talk, John Powers (Deakin University, Australia) discusses some controversial interpretative issues concerning the three-nature doctrine in Yogācāra Buddhism. It was recorded on April 21, 2021.
Buddhism without Buddhists? On Philosophy, Normativity and Whale Ears (Joseph Walser, Tufts University)
In this Zoom talk, Joseph Walser critiques the modern Western scholarly discourse on Buddhist philosophy, arguing that academic Buddhist philosophers appeal to a free-floating, normative “Buddhism” when making their arguments about historical Buddhist authors. Walser argues that the cogency of such arguments is undermined when the historical context of the original argument is misunderstood. The talk is recorded on April 14, 2021.
Why must a good Hindu not believe in God? The Orthodox Answer (Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Lancaster University, UK)
From the perspective of the comparative philosophy of religion, it is intriguing that there are those who argue that a true commitment to the authority of sacred text requires the rejection of a divine author for it. But such is the position of the Mīmāṃsā thinkers, the Exegetes of the Hindu sacred texts, the Vedas. In this talk, Professor Ram-Prasad looks at several precise arguments against ‘God’ (īśvara) by Kumārila Bhaṭṭa (7th c). The talk is recorded on March 31, 2021.