The Hindu Philosophy unit of the American Academy of Religion is pleased to invite proposals for two sessions to be held at this year’s Annual Meeting:


1. Philosophical Roundtable. This format brings together several participants to discuss either a single argument or a closely related series of arguments from a single author. This year we will focus on Kumārila’s arguments for svataḥ-prāmāṇya, or the “intrinsic validity” of cognitions, at Śloka-vārttika II.33-61. The goal is not to have traditional presentations but to create a space for lively and rigorous discussion. In lieu of traditional paper proposals, therefore, we instead invite prospective participants to write a short philosophical analysis either of the section as a whole or a single argument from the section. One might, for example, criticize Kumārila’s argument, or extend it, or defend it against further objections, or note something surprising in the argument, or simply assess its strengths and weaknesses.


2. Traditional Papers Session. For this session we are looking for individual paper proposals (rather than full panel proposals). We are especially interested in papers on yogic perception or the philosophy of perception more broadly, but we are also open to a wide range of other topics related to Hindu philosophy. Possible topics include but are by no means limited to: Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Materiality, Discourses of Ultimate Reality, Philosophy and Pedagogy, Lived Philosophy, “Philosophy” as a Category, Stock Examples, Philosophy and Literature, and Philosophy in Vernacular Texts.