Room 113, School of Arts and Sciences
Ahmedabad University, Central Campus, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad
The remarkable Jaina philosophers of classical India make a distinction of fundamental epistemological significance when they say that as well as and in addition to epistemic principles (pramāṇa), there are also nayas, epistemic standpoints or stances, and that both are essential constituents in inquiring into the truth. A second major innovation of the Jainas is to insist that we must adopt stances non-dogmatically, meaning that I can acknowledge the value of your way of interrogating reality while pursuing an alternative path myself. Professor Ganeri will show how these ideas in combination lead to a new pluralistic understanding of the right way to inquire into the truth.
Professor Jonardon Ganeri is a philosopher whose work draws on a variety of philosophical traditions to construct new positions in the philosophy of mind, metaphysics and epistemology. He advocates an expanded role for cross-cultural methodologies in philosophical research, together with enhanced cultural diversity in the philosophical curriculum. His research interests are in consciousness, self, attention, the epistemology of inquiry, the idea of philosophy as a practice and its relationship with literature. He works too on the history of ideas in early modern South Asia, intellectual affinities between India and Greece, and Buddhist philosophy of mind. He joined the Fellowship of the British Academy in 2015, and won the Infosys Prize in the Humanities the same year, the only philosopher to do so. He is visiting Ahmedabad University on the Rasila and Chandrakant Kadia Endowed Visiting Professorship.
