CANCELLED:

Dr. Parimal G. Patil
Harvard University

Friday March 13^th 4:30pm
A.D. White House, 27 East Avenue
Guerlac Room

Dr. Parimal G. Patil is Professor of Religion and Indian Philosophy at Harvard University.  His first monograph Against a Hindu God: Buddhist Philosophy of Religion in India (Columbia 2009) broke ground as one of the few works to make premodern Indian Philosophy relevant to contemporary philosophers. 

Hosted at the A.D. White House's Guerlac Room, in this lecture Dr. Patil will discuss the theory of action central to one of premodern India’s most monumental philosophical treatises, Gangesa's The Philosopher’s Stone (c. 1325 _CE). 

Dr. Patil will provide an interpretation of Gangesa's theory of action and argue that the philosophical issues most central to it have to do with “motivation to the means” and two related issues having to do with the sources of normativity and, perhaps surprisingly, linguistic force.  As Dr. Patil will show, Gangesa defends a broadly Humean theory of motivation.

In this lecture, for the first time, Gangesa's sophisticated theory of action will be made accessible to non-specialists, and its relevance will be shown to both contemporary philosophy and to the humanities more broadly, from Religious Studies and South Asian Studies to Intellectual History and the Classics.

Refreshments and food will be served after the lecture.