[with apologies for cross-posting]

Dear Colleagues,

Below please find the CFP for the Hindu Philosophy unit of the American Academy of Religion. This year’s annual meeting will be in San Diego, California, Nov. 23-26. 

Proposals should be submitted through the PAPERS system; the portal is scheduled to open on Jan. 31, and the deadline for submissions is Feb. 29 (5pm EST). Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Best wishes,

Michael

Michael S. Allen (co-chair, with Parimal Patil)

Associate Professor

Department of Religious Studies

University of Virginia

----------Call for Proposals----------

The Hindu Philosophy unit of the American Academy of Religion is pleased to invite proposals for three 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 discuss Nyāya arguments for the existence of God (or Īśvara), focusing on Jayanta Bhaṭṭa’s formulation of the īśvarānumāna in the Nyāyamañjarī (āhnika 3; see the critical edition of Kataoka [2005]). The goal is not to have traditional presentations but instead to create a space for lively and rigorous discussion. In lieu of traditional paper proposals, we invite prospective participants to write a short philosophical analysis of Jayanta’s argument. One might, for example, criticize the inference, or defend it against objections, or simply assess its strengths and weaknesses. Proposals might also consider Jayanta’s argument in light of later formulations and critiques of the inference (see, e.g., Patil, Against a Hindu God [2009]).


2. Traditional Papers Session. For this session we are looking for individual paper proposals rather than full panel proposals. We are open to a wide range of topics related to Hindu philosophy. Possible topics include but are by no means limited to: epistemology, philosophy of language, aesthetics, philosophy and literature, philosophical theology, discourses of ultimate reality, philosophy and pedagogy, lived philosophy, modern Indian philosophy, and philosophy in vernacular texts.

3. Co-sponsored Session on Philosophy of Materiality. We also seek papers for a possible co-sponsored session with the Tantric Studies unit on Loriliai Biernacki's recent book The Matter of Wonder: Abhinavagupta's Panentheism and the New Materialism (OUP 2023) and on Hindu philosophies of materiality more broadly.