2014, 10/22 – Meaning of Life with Prof. Jay L. Garfield


Originally aired on Feb. 5, 2014.

Professor Garfield has written more than 15 books and 100 scholarly articles on the beliefs our world lives by. His work ranges across a vast historical sweep of intellectual traditions and profound texts, all to foster an appreciation of the diversity central to the question, “What is the meaning of life?”

Jay L Garfield is Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Professor of Humanities and Head of Studies in Philosophy at Yale-NUS College, Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Singapore, Recurrent Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Yale University, Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Smith College, Professor of Philosophy at Melbourne University and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the Central University of Tibetan Studies.  He earned his PhD in Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. Professor Garfield teaches and pursues research in the philosophy of mind, foundations of cognitive science, logic, philosophy of language, Buddhist philosophy, cross-cultural hermeneutics, theoretical and applied ethics and epistemology.

Garfield’s most recent books are Western Idealism and its Critics (2011), Sweet Reason: A Field Guide to Modern Logic  (2011) Indian Philosophy in English from Renaissance to Independence (with Nalini Bhushan, 2011),Contrary Thinking: Selected Essays of Daya Krishna (with Nalini Bhushan and Daniel Raveh, 2011),Moonshadows: Conventional Truth in Buddhist Philosophy (with the Cowherds, 2010), The Oxford Handbook of World Philosophy (with William Edelgass, 2010), Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings (with William Edelglass, OUP 2009), TransBuddhism: Translation, Transmission and Transformation (with Nalini Bhushan and Abraham Zablocki, , Pointing at the Moon: Buddhim, Logic and Analytic Philosophy (with Mario D’Amato and Tom Tillemans, 2009), Ocean of Reasoning (with Geshe Ngawang Samten, 2006), Empty Words: Buddhist Philosophy and Cross-Cultural Interpretation (1996) and Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (1995).

Professor Garfield’s current work in progress includes his book Engaging Buddhism: Why Buddhism Matters to Contemporary Philosophy, a book with Nalini Bhushan, Masala Modernity: Philosophy in the Indian Renaissance, Moonpaths: Ethics in the Context of Conventional Truth (with the Cowherds) and the edited collectionsMadhyamaka and Yogācāra: Allies or Rivals (with Jan Westerhoff) and The Moon Points Back: Buddhism, Logic and Analytic Philosophy (with Yasuo Deguchi, Graham Priest and Koji Tanaka) as well as a collaborative project on Dignāga’s Alaṃbanāparikṣā and its commentaries.

To learn more about Prof. Garfield and his work, please visit www.smith.edu/philosophy/jgarfield.html

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