Zukunftsphilologie
2013/ 2014

Sonam Kachru

The Elusive Mark of the Mental: Philosophy of Mind with Vasubandhu

Sonam Kachru specializes in the history of philosophy, with a focus on Buddhist and Brahmanical philosophical traditions in premodern South Asia. He completed his PhD from the University of Chicago in 2013, where his dissertation “Dreams, Demons and Beyond: Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind in Vasubandhu’s Twenty Verses” was devoted to the intersection of metaphysics, natural philosophy, hermeneutics and philosophy of mind in the thought of the Buddhist philosopher from Peshawar, Vasubandhu (fl. 360-430 C.E.).

The Elusive Mark of the Mental: Philosophy of Mind with Vasubandhu

Extending his interest in Vasubandhu as a fellow of Zukunftsphilologie, Sonam seeks to characterize the phenomenon of “thinking in commentary” in Sanskrit letters. In this capacity, he will explore rival conceptions of philosophical commentary, and conceptions of history, tradition and truth associated with practices of commentary in fifth-century South Asia. In particular, Sonam Kachru will focus on Vasubandhu's exemplary presentation of commentary, in theory and practice, as a distinctive way in which to engage the relationship between history and the kind of truth Vasubandhu believed was only preserved through critically engaged and rationally reconstructed tradition.