Philosophy in Fiction Across Millennia: Jayanta Bhaṭṭa's Āgamaḍambara and R.F. Kuang's Babel

Literature can often begin where Philosophy ends, but can there also be literary works where philosophical matters are explicitly debated in settings entirely fictional? Can these serve only didactic purposes (or, worse, merely entertain!), or can they animate a thoughtful reader's quiet reflection in a manner that reality may simply be unable to? In this workshop, we discuss the presentation of philosophy in fictional works as exemplified by Jayanta Bhaṭṭa's Āgamaḍambara (c.10th century CE) and R. F. Kuang's Babel (2022). Students are welcome (nay, warmly encouraged!) to read these two fascinating works and come discuss not merely technical matters of philosophy but also magic, linguistic irony and the strange turns of our world's history.

Presenter: Professor Shishir Saxena, Associate Professor, School of Arts and Sciences

Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Time: 4:00 - 5:30 PM IST
Venue: Room 204, School of Arts and Sciences, Central Campus