About

Image from Yale-NUS College profile article, November 2016.

Language, meaning, and knowledge—
in Indian philosophy and beyond.

How do we understand metaphors and figures of speech?
How do we come to know through other people's testimony?
How should reasonable people engage in argumentation?

These are some of the questions I seek to answer in conversation with premodern and modern philosophers, in India and beyond.

Education & Qualifications

Ph.D., Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin. May 2015.

Dissertation: “Speaking Indirectly: Theories of Non-Literal Meaning in Indian Philosophy.”Committee: Stephen Phillips (chair), Ray Buchanan, Josh Dever, Hans Kamp, LawrenceMcCrea

M.A. Philosophy (summa cum laude), University of Missouri-St. Louis. 2006.
B.A. English, Spanish (with honors), Grove City College. 2000.
Languages: Sanskrit (reading), Spanish (advanced conversation, reading, writing), English (fluent)

Academic Work

Books

Controversial Reasoning in Indian Philosophy: Major Texts and Arguments on Arthâpatti. (2020). Bloomsbury Academic Publishing.
Language, Meaning, and Use in Indian Philosophy: An Introduction to Mukula's "Fundamentals of the Communicative Function." (2019). Bloomsbury Academic Publishing.
- NDPR review of the book, Brendan Gillon, 21 Feb 202
- Swarajya review of Language, Meaning, and Use in Indian Philosophy

Peer-reviewed Papers

"Kumārila Bhaṭṭa and Pārthasārathi Miśra on First- and Higher-Order Knowing". Philosophy East and West. 72:2 (2022): 396-414.
"Debating with Fists and Fallacies: Vācaspati Miśra and Dharmakīrti on Norms of Argumentation" (2022). International Journal of Hindu Studies. 26:1 (2022): 63-87.
"The Pragma-Dialectics of Dispassionate Discourse: Early Nyāya Argumentation Theory" (2021). Religions. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12100875
"Metaphor or Delusion? A Mīmāṃsaka's Response to Conceptual Metaphor Theory." (2019). Philosophy East and West. doi: 10.1353/pew.0.0172
"(Close) the Door; the King (is Going): The Development of Elliptical Resolution in Bhāṭṭa Mīmāṃsā." (2017). Journal of Indian Philosophy 45:5, pp. 911-938.
"Metonymy and Metaphor as Verbal Postulation: The Epistemic Status of Non-Literal Speech in Indian Philosophy'.' (2017) Journal of World Philosophies 2:1.
"How Do We Gather Knowledge through Language?'' with Elisa Freschi. (2017). Journal of World Philosophies 2:1.
Thinking about Embedded Metaphors." (2015). Journal of Pragmatics 88, pp.19-26.
"The Cow is to Be Tied Up: Sort-Shifting in Classical Indian Philosophy." (2013). History of Philosophy Quarterly 30:4, pp.331-332.
"Mukulabhaṭṭa’s Defense of Lakṣaṇā: How We Use Words to Mean Something Else, but Not Everything Else." (2013). Journal of Indian Philosophy 41:4, pp. 439-461.

Encyclopedia Entries & Bibliographies

"Pramāṇa.'' (2021). Invited contribution to The Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion, eds. Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaferro, Wiley-Blackwell.
"The Literal/Non-Literal Distinction in Indian Philosophy," The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (Winter 2016 Edition, Revised Winter 2020), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
"Epistemology (Pramāṇas)" with Matthew R. Dasti. (2016). Oxford Bibliographies Online, Hinduism.