The Department of Philosophy Colloquium Series Presents

EMBODIED MIND AND ARGUMENTATION IN CLASSICAL NYĀYA

Date: Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Time: 3:30-5:00pm
Location: Sakamaki C-308

In this talk, I will offer a sampling of my recent work on and planned future research for the classical Indian school of Nyaya (Brāhminical Logic). I will first summarise a recent paper in which I show that all of the major characterizations and descriptions of “mind” in classical Nyaya texts can, despite their claims to the contrary, only coherently entail that this organ is physical. I will then go on to outline plans for future research, which sees the formal argumentation of Nyaya along with the argumentation framework of Classical Chinese Mohists are fundamentally pragmatic and fallibilist in nature.

DR. DOUGLAS L. BERGER IS PROFESSOR OF GLOBAL AND COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY AND THE DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRE FOR INTERCUL TURAL PHILOSOPHY AT LEIDEN UNIVERSITY IN THE NETHERLANDS.