Everyone is invited to the following colloquium talk hosted by the Philosophy department. Refreshments will be served.

Speaker: Dhruv Raj Nagar, Postdoctoral Fellow of Jain Studies, Emory University

Time & Place: Monday 14 October 1:30 PM AC04 LR303
Google Calendar Event Link

Abstract: I consider some key issues in the Philosophy of Action from a Sanskritic point of view, that is, I ask whether there is any such thing as (what can be called) a ‘Sanskritic Philosophy of Action (SPOA)’ that can illumine some core philosophical issues including the ontology of actions, the problem of individuating action, distinguishing active-passive (or agent-patient) dimensions of an act, assuming or attributing moral-legal responsibility for actions and, finally, articulating a robust conception of agency upon which other questions often rest. All along I take an eminently linguistic approach afforded by insights and approaches emerging from Indian philosophy of language. 

SPOA compels us to consider the following questions in its treatment of agency (kartrÌ£tva) and action (kriyā): Can we consistently speak of impersonal and inanimate agency and, conversely, of agentless personhood without necessarily resorting to metaphor or contradiction? Can we coherently impute agency to clouds, Hurricane Helene, plants, planes, bacteria, body parts, governments or corporations, and what ontological commitments does this move entail? We will read samples from two apparently contrasting ends of the Indian philosophical spectrum, the Advaitin Åšaṅkara’s and Buddhist CandrakÄ«rti’s treatment of agency and action (from the UpadeÅ›asāhasrÄ« and Prasannapadā commentary to the MÅ«lamadhyamakakārikā respectively) asking whether and how the Sanskritic syntax of subjectivity and personhood interacts with Indian philosophical polemics of selflessness.