I came to Charleston right after completing my doctorate at the Australian National University in 2005. I did my undergraduate work in philosophy at the University of Bucharest, where I also obtained an M.A. in 1993. I spent nearly four and a half years in India in the mid 1990s, pursuing studies in Indian and Buddhist Philosophy. While in India, I was affiliated with several research institutes, including the RMIC and the Asiatic Society in Calcutta (as a Research Fellow, 1995-1996), the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute and De Nobili College in Pune (1993), and the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, Varanasi (1996).

In 1997 I moved to Australia, and the following year I began graduate school at the Australian National University. I spent the greater part of 2000 working on a proof of concept model for parsing Sanskrit based on the Interlingua system (the project was funded by an ARC grant). Between November 2000 and March 2001 I was a visiting PhD student at Queens' College, Cambridge, L'Institut de Civilisation Indienne, Paris, and the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, Varanasi.

My research interests are fairly broad, ranging from classical Indian and Buddhist philosophy to phenomenology and consciousness studies. My most recent work focuses on classical Indian and Buddhist theories of perception, the contemporary reception of the Dignāga-Dharmakīrti school of Buddhist epistemology, and the intersections between phenomenology and cognitive science.

Ph.D., Australian National University.
M.A., University of Bucharest.
B.A., University of Bucharest.

Perceiving Reality: Consciousness, Intentionality, and Cognition in Buddhist Philosophy. Forthcoming with Oxford University Press (September 2012).

"Reason and Experience in Buddhist Epistemology," in Emmanuel, S., ed. A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy, Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming.

"Dignāga and Dharmakīrti on Perception and Intentionality," in Powers, J., ed. The Buddhist World, Routledge, forthcoming.

"Mind in Indian Buddhist Philosophy," The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2009 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)

"Naturalism and Intentionality: A Buddhist Epistemological Approach," Asian Philosophy, 19/3 (November 2009): 239-264.

"Buddhist Foundationalism and the Phenomenology of Perception," Philosophy East and West, 59:4 (October 2009): 409-439.

"Karma, Rebirth, and Mental Causation," in Charles Prebish, Damien Keown, and Dale S. Wright, Revisioning Karma: the eBook, Journal of Buddhist Ethics Online Books, 2007, pp. 133-154.

"An Essay on the Ascension of the Soul in Neoplatonism," Origins 3 (2003) 156-67.

"Hermeneutics in a Buddhist Perspective," Origins 2002, 1: 145-50.

"The Continuity Between Madhyamaka and Yogācāra Schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism in India," Journal of the Asiatic Society (1996) 37, 2: 48-83.

Review of Owen Flanagan, The Bodhisattva's Brain: Buddhism Naturalized, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.

Review of Simon P. James, Zen Buddhism and Environmental Ethics, Sophia (April 2008) 47, 1: 75-77.

Review of David E. Cooper and Simon P. James, Buddhism, Virtue, and Environment, Sophia (July 2007) 46, 2: 207-209.

"A Restricted Interpretation of Dharmakīrti's Philosophy," Review of John Dunne, Foundations of Dharmakīrti's Philosophy, H-Buddhism Reviews, March 2006.

A Review Essay of Destructive Emotions: How Can We Overcome Them? A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Journal of Buddhist Ethics 11/1 (2004): 98-102.

"How Thoughts Feel: The Cross-modality of Cognitive Phenomenology," Toward a Science of Consciousness Conference, Tucson, AZ, April 9-14, 2012.

"Are Reasons Causally Relevant for Action? Dharmakīrti’s Kāryānumāna Argument and the Embodied Cognition Paradigm," American Philosophical Association, Central Division Meeting, Chicago, February 16, 2012.

"Reflexivity Without a Self: How do Buddhists Explain Consciousness?" Colgate University, Department of Philosophy, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011, 4:15pm, Hascall 202.

"How Embodiment Shapes Consciousness and Cognition," American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division Meeting, Washington, D.C. December 2011.

"A Buddhist Phenomenological Account of Intentional Objects: Vasubandhu and Dignāga on artha-pratibhāsa," American Academy of Religion, Yogācāra Studies Consultation, Theme: Analyzing Vasubandhu’s Twenty Verses (Viṃśatikā): Causes, Objects, Appearances, Aspects, San Francisco, November 19, 2011.

"Practical Reason and the Spontaneity of Compassion," Contemporary Perspectives on Buddhist Ethics: Freedom and Responsibility, Columbia University, October 6-7, 2011.

"Reasons and Causes: A Naturalized Account of Dharmakīrti's Kāryānumāna Argument", XVIth Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Dharma Drum Buddhist College, Taiwan, June 2011

"Taking the Intentionality of Perception Seriously: Why Phenomenology is Inescapable," Columbia Society for Comparative Philosophy, Columbia University, New York, 10 December 2010.

"Buddhist Philosophy and Discourse Analysis," American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division Meeting, Boston, December 2010

Since coming to the College of Charleston I have been teaching a range of topical courses in Metaphysics, Epistemology, Philosophy of Religion, and Indian and Buddhist Philosophy. I have also team taught (with seven other colleagues from across the School of Humanities) the Colloquium in Western Civilization course for the Honors College. Besides teaching regular classes, I often supervise independent research studies and bachelor's essays.

BACHELOR'S ESSAYS AND INDEPENDENT STUDIES SUPERVISED

Husserl’s Concept of Intentionality
Concept of Jen in Neo-Confucianism
Knowledge and Faith in Thomas Aquinas
Derrida on Deconstruction and Semiotics
Authenticity and the Mass Media
Derrida’s Method of Deconstruction
Mediaeval Scholastic Debates: Ibn Rushd and al-Ghazāli
Umberto Eco and Semiotics
Śāntideva’s Moral Philosophy
Philosophical Hermeneutics: Gadamer’s Truth & Method
Constructing and Deconstructing the Self: Personal Identity and Buddhist Philosophy

SPRING 2011

PHIL 234 - Eastern Philosophy
PHIL 101 - Introduction to Philosophy.

COURSES TAUGHT

PHIL 450 - Senior Seminar in Philosophy (Spring 2009)
PHIL 307 - 20th Century Continental Philosophy (Spring 2007)
PHIL 320 - Metaphysics (Fall 2006, 2009)
PHIL 298 - Mind, Body, Spirit - an interdiciplinary course team-taught with Lee Irwin (Religious Studies) and Moore Quinn (Anthropology) (Spring 2010)
PHIL 298 - Hermeneutics: Interpreting Across Boundaries (Fall 2005)
PHIL 255 - Philosophy of Religion (Spring 2006, 2008)
PHIL 234 - Eastern Philosophy (Spring 2006, Fall 2007, 2008)
PHIL 101 - Introduction to Philosophy (2005-2010)
HONS 170 - Honors Introduction to Philosophy (Fall 2009, 2010)
HONS 120 - Colloquium in Western Civilization (Fall 2006, 2007, 2008)

Here's a syllabus of my capstone seminar on Consciousness, Intentionality, and Embodiment. I also experimented with a course blog for this seminar.

Sanskrit Unicode Text Processing (for those using Emacs and LaTex on Linux machines; I moved to Mac OS X after the 10.2 system was released and never looked back).

I also edit the Indian Philosophy category on philpapers.