Jay Garfield

Jay L. Garfield is Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy, Logic and Buddhist Studies, Chair of the Philosophy department, and director of the Logic program at Smith College. He is also Visiting Professor of Buddhist Philosophy at Harvard Divinity School, Professor of Philosophy at Melbourne University, and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the Central University of Tibetan Studies. He has taught in Australia, Singapore, Japan, and Germany and is a regular lecturer at major universities, Buddhist Studies centers, and research institutions around the world. Professor Garfield is author, co-author, or editor of 28 books and over 150 articles and book reviews.

Prof Garfield’s research addresses topics in the foundations of cognitive science and the philosophy of mind; the history of Indian philosophy during the colonial period; topics in ethics, epistemology and the philosophy of logic; methodology in cross-cultural interpretation; and Buddhist philosophy, particularly Indo-Tibetan Madhyamaka and Yogācāra. His most recent books are What Can’t Be Said: Paradox and Contradiction in East Asian Philosophy (with Yasuo Deguchi, Graham Priest, and Robert Sharf, OUP 2020); The Concealed Influence of Custom: Hume’s Treatise from the Inside Out (OUP 2019); The Essential Jewel of Holy Practice (a translation of Patrul Rinpoche’s text of that name, with Emily McRae, Wisdom Publications 2017); Minds Without Fear: Philosophy in the Indian Renaissance (with Nalini Bhushan); Engaging Buddhism: Why it Matters to Philosophy (OUP 2015); and Dignāga’s Investigation of the Percept: A Philosophical Legacy in India and Tibet (with Duckworth et al., OUP 2015). He is currently working on a large collaborative project on Geluk-Sakya epistemological debates in 15th – 18th century Tibet following on Taktshang Lotsawa’s 18 Great Contradictions in the Thought of Tsongkhapa, a book on Buddhist Ethics, and, with Nalini Bhushan, a homolinguistic translation of KC Bhattacharyya’s Subject as Freedom. Many of Jay Garfield’s publications are available on jaygarfield.org.