Special Forms of Perception in Buddhist and Brahmanical Philosophy

This workshop tackles “special” forms of perception—yogic, learned, scriptural, meditative, recollective, poetic, etc.—in Indian and Chinese Philosophy post the 6th century C.E., particularly as they were examined by Buddhists and Brahmins in internal and interreligious debates, and as they may be engaged by the contemporary epistemologies of religious experience. Topics of interest concern the scope of perceptual cognition and its distinction from recollection; scriptural validity; religious experience; the divide between constructivism and perennialism; case studies in philosophy; the very possibility or need of special perception, etc.

The workshop is open to a variety of methodological approaches, from the philological to the constructive and everything in between.

Sponsored by BDK America, South Asian Studies Council, and Council on East Asian Studies