See below for the various talks scheduled and presented in the past by visitors as well as by our own faculty members and students (e.g. thesis defenses and practice talks).
2023
28 April, 7pm: Maria Heim (Amherst College): Studying Emotions In — and According to — Classical Indian Texts
27 April, 1:30pm: Eric Johannesson (Ashoka): What’s Wrong with ad hoc Theory Modifications?
12 April, 1:30pm: Benjamin Winokur (Ashoka): TBA
17 March, 1:30pm: A. Raghuramaraju (IIT Tirupati): The Predicament and Challenges of accessing the Past in the Indian National Movement
13 March, 1:30pm: Alex Watson (Ashoka): Indian Arguments for and Against the Existence of a Self
8 February, 1:30pm: Tammo Lossau (Ashoka): Is Our Epistemic Standard Dissolving?
25 January, 1:30pm: Michael T. W. Much (University of Vienna): Dharmakīrti‘s Philosophy of Language
2022
May 13, 2022, Meena Krishnamurthy (Queens University), 6:30 pm.: “Martin Luther King on Fear and Fearlessness”
April 7, 2022, Hrishikesh Joshi (Queens University), 6:30 pm.: “The Epistemic Significance of Social Pressure”
Feb 24, 2022, Amber Carpenter (Yale- NUS College), 6 pm.: “Epistemic Ideals and Moral Transformation”
Feb 10, 2022, Mayank Bora (University of North Bengal), 6 pm.: “Epistemic Transparency and Fregean Identity”
Jan 27, 2022, Matti Eklund (Uppsala University), 6 pm.: “Alien Structure: Language and Reality”
2021
Dec 2, 2021, Janum Sethi (University of Michigan), 6 p.m.: “Kant on Prejudice”
Nov 16, 2021, Alex Watson (Ashoka), 6 p.m.: “Jayanta on Whether Recognition Refutes Momentariness”
Oct 21, 2021, Justin Broackes (Brown University), 6 p.m.: “Locke, Boyle and Essences”
Oct 1, 2021, Josh Schechter (Brown University), 6 p.m.: “The Theoretical Significance of the A Priori/A Posteriori Distinction”
Mar 30, 2021, Daniel Guillery (University of Warwick), 6:10 p.m.: “Gentrification and the injustice of marginalising sociocultural neighbourhood change” [=Philosophy and PPE lecture]
Feb 26, 2021, Bob Fischer (Texas State University), 6:10 p.m.: “One Cheer for Cheating”
Feb 12, 2021, Anjan Chakravartty (Universiy of Miami), 6:30 p.m.: “Public Understandings of Science and the Common Good”
Jan 29, 2021, Jordan MacKenzie (Virginia Tech), 6:10 p.m.: “Self-Deception as a Moral Failure”
2020
Dec 9, 2020, Kian Mintz-Woo (University College Cork), 6:10 p.m.: “Progress Without Convergence”
Nov 27, 2020, Alex Watson (Ashoka), 1:30 p.m.: “Do objects of perception present themselves as momentary or persisting? Jayanta versus Ravigupta”
Nov 10, 2020, Raja Rosenhagen (Ashoka), 6:10 p.m.: “Intrepid Internalism, or: How not to Fear Evil Demons”
Nov 02, 2020, Scott Hill (University of Colorado Boulder), 7 p.m.: “The Causal Impotence Problem is a Newcomb Problem”
Oct 20, 2020, Michael Ruse (Florida State University), 4:30 p.m.: “Does Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection spell the death of God?”
20 Mar, 2020, Michael Ruse (Florida State University), 1:30 p.m.: TBA [Covid-postponed until further notice]
18 Mar, 2020, Raja Rosenhagen (Ashoka), 1:30 p.m.: “Predictive Coding, Cognitive Penetration, and Reformed Empiricism” [Covid-postponed until further notice]
16 Mar, 2020, Kabir Singh Bakshi (Ashoka), 1:40 p.m. (UG Thesis Presentation / Conference prep): “Grounding Time Asymmetry” [Covid-postponed until further notice]
4 Mar, 2020, Blake Hestir (Texas Christian University), 1:30 p.m.: “Plato on the Metaphysics of the Spoken Word” [Covid-cancelled]
4 Mar, 2020, Niko Strobach (WWU Münster, Germany), 1:30 p.m.: “A German Fairy Tale as a Key to Wittgenstein’s Tractatus”
19 Feb 2020, Alex Haitos (Ashoka University), 1:30 p.m.: “The Importance of the Idea of Appropriation in William James’s Radical Empiricism”
12 Feb, 2020, Akshath Jitendranath (VU Amsterdam), 1:30 p.m.: “Hard Choices: Neither Parity, Nor Incommensurability, Nor Incomparability”
11 Feb, 2020, Juliana Lima (Ashoka), 6:10 p.m.: “Group Action and Indexical Beliefs”
29 Jan 2020, Arudra Burra (IIT Delhi Philosophy), 1:30 p.m.: “Fairness, Convention, and the Morality of Misrepresentation in Business and Professional Contexts”
22 Jan 2020, Pragati Sahni (Delhi University), 1:30 p.m.: “The Status of Plants: A Brief Exploration of Early Buddhism and Jainism”
2019
11 Dec 2019, Tom Parr (University of Warwick), 1:30 p.m.: “Militant Vegetarianism”
20 Nov 2019, Shishir Saxena (Ahmedabad University), 1:30 p.m.: “Conflicting Prescriptions and Prohibitions: The Deontic Logic of Mīmāṃsā”
13 Nov 2019, Anil Gupta (University of Pittsburgh), 1:30 p.m.: “Foundationalism and Empirical Reason”
6 Nov 2019, Elay Shech (Auburn University, US), 1:30 p.m.: “Is there a viable anti-realist, selectionist explanation of the success of science?” [cancelled due to hazardous weather conditions]
30 Oct, Gagan Deep Kaur, (Int. Centre For Inter. Res. in Human Studies (ICIRHS), Laurentian University): 1:20 p.m.: “Cognitive Impact of Code-based Design Representation in a Native Handicrafts Practice”
16 Oct 2019, Purushottama Bilimoria (Graduate Theological Union), 1:30 p.m.: “The Last of the Indian Liberals and Silver Tongue of the Empire: Rt Hon V S Srinivasa Sastri: biosophical sketches”
8 May 2019, Martin O’Neill (York University, UK): “Social Justice, Democratic Socialism, and Collective Capital Institutions: Rawlsian Justice in an Age of Inequality”
2 May 2019, Adwait Parker (Stanford): “Asymmetry of Intuition and Kant’s Theory of Physical Space”
1 May 2019, Alex Watson (Ashoka), “Some Buddhist Arguments for Consciousness as the Fundamental Reality”
29 April 2019, Jayanti Jha (Ashoka), “A Theory of Promising”, ASP Capstone Thesis Presentation
29 April 2019, Ajay Verma (JNU), “Theorizing Mental States in Classical Indian Philosophy”
25 April 2019, Rhea Narayan Kuthoore (Ashoka): “What a Coincidence!!!”, ASP Capstone Thesis Presentation
24 April 2019, Reetika Kalita (Ashoka), “”Nihilism in the Abuse of History: Finding Nietzsche in The Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life”, MLS Capstone Thesis Presentation
24 April 2019, Nishant Kauntia (Ashoka), “Nietzsche On The Role of Aesthetics in Coping with Nihilistic Despair”, ASP Capstone Thesis Presentation
24 April 2019, Anirban Mukherjee (North Bengal University): “Authenticity and the Social Self”
23 April 2019, Vikas Srivastava (Ashoka), “Does Truth Lie in Love?”, MLS Capstone Thesis Presentation
23 April 2019, Martin Lin (Rutgers): “Spinoza’s Faith”
22 April 2019, Neal Harris (Sussex): “Towards a deeper social critique: social pathology diagnosis from Rousseau to Honneth”
17 April 2019: Anuk Arudpragasam (Columbia): “William James on the Suffering of Others”
10 April 2019, Apaar Kumar (Ahmedabad University): “Kant on the Feeling of Existence: Considerations from Tetens and Feder”
4 April 2019, Eric Snyder (Smith College): “A New Puzzle Concerning the Acquisition of Number Concepts”
3 April 2019, Kate Stanton (Yale): “‘You Junkwagon!’ The Semantics of ‘You φ’ Expressives”
2 April 2019, Monima Chadha (Monash, Australia): “Depersonalisation and the Experience of Self: A Buddhist Analysis”
23 March 2019: PhilCon
Bryan van Norden (Yale-NUS): “Learning from Chinese Philosophy”
Rhea Malik (Jindal Global University): “From Kant to Critical Legal Studies: The Role of Ontology in Dignity”
18 April 2018, Jishnu Ghose (ASP Student, Ashoka), Thesis Progress Presentation: “Focusing on Attention”
11 April 2018, Aaron Mascarenhas (MLS Student, Ashoka), Thesis Progress Presentation: “Should We Abandon Nazi-Era Eponyms for Diseases?”
4 April 2018, Megha Devraj (ASP Student, Ashoka), Thesis Progress Presentation: “Wittgenstein’s Use Theory and the Chinese Room”
3 April 2018, Rachana Kamtekar (Cornell University): “Aristotle contra Plato on the Voluntariness of Vice”
21 March 2018, Nirmalya Guha (Manipal University): “Absence, Its Cognition and Ontology: An Indian Perspective”
7 March 2018, Kranti Saran (Ashoka): “The Moral Significance of Introspection”
28 February 2018, Malcom Keating (Yale-NUS College): “Metaphor or Delusion? Kumārila Bhaṭṭa on Figurative Language”
21 February 2018, Roy Perrett (Ashoka): “Can I Doubt that I Exist?”
14 February 2018, Aditi Chaturvedi (Ashoka): “Harmony and Isonomy: Two Models of Order in Pre-Platonic Philosophy”
7 February 2018, Amy Gordon (Ashoka): “The Importance of Being Angry: Towards a ‘Political Emotion'”
31 January 2018, Clancy Martin (University of Missouri, Kansas City, Ashoka University): “Indifference and Urgency”
2017
19 April 2017, Mark Fedyk (Mount Allison University, Ashoka University): “How to Make Moral Psychology (Slightly) More Realistic”
4 April 2017, Kit Patrick (University of Bristol): “Unification as an Epistemic Virtue”
22 March 2017, Anil Gupta (University of Pittsburg): “Russell on Our Knowledge of the External World”
20 March 2017, Christopher Hill (Brown University): “Perceptual Relativity”
15 February 2017, Sir Richard Sorabji (University of Oxford): “The Discovery of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Speech for All” and “Freedom of Speech and Opening Ears: Sometimes Divergent Forms of Speech?
2015-6
16 June 2016, Clancy Martin (University of Missouri, Kansas City): “How You Become What You Are: Nietzsche on Selfhood”
16 May 2016, Aditi Chaturvedi (University of Pennsylvania): “Harmonia in Plato’s Psychology”
26 April 2016, Roy Perrett (Ashoka University): “Memory, Doubt and the Self”
22 March 2016, Tyke Nunez (University of Pittsburg): “Kant on the Constitution of Causal Experience”
21 March 2016, Kathryn Lindeman (Saint Louis University): “Legal Metanormativity; Lessons for and from Constitutivist Accounts in the Philosophy of Law”
3 February 2016, Lucas Thorpe (Boğaziçi University): “Knowledge Doesn’t Entail Belief”
19 January 2016, Martin Lin: “The Mind-Body Problem and Early Modern Philosophy”
18 November 2015, Arindam Chakrabarti: “Could Consciousness Just Be a Convenient Fiction?”
14 October 2015, Arudra Burra (IIT Delhi): “Civil Liberties and Political Ideology”
20 April 2015, Scott Dixon (UC Davis): “What is Grounding and Why Do We Need It?”
25 March 2015, Martin Glazier (NYU): “Explanation, Actualist Possibility, and Tomorrow’s Sea Battle”