Professor Purushottama Bilimoria

Shivdasani Visiting Fellow
Visiting Fellow
professor-purushottama-bilimoria

Purushottama Bilimoria, PhD is Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Studies at Deakin University in Australia and Senior Research Fellow, University of Melbourne. Visiting Professor and Lecturer at University of California, Berkeley and Dominican University, San Anselmo, and Shivadasani Fellow of  Oxford University. His areas of specialist research and publications cover classical Indian philosophy and comparative ethics; Continental thought; cross-cultural philosophy of religion, diaspora studies; bioethics, and personal law in India. He is an Editor-in-Chief of Sophia, Journal of Philosophy of Religion, Springer. He also edits a book series with Springer on Sophia: cross-cultural studies in Culture and Traditions, Recent publication is Indian Ethics I, Ashgate 2007; OUP 2008, and Sabdapramana: Word and Knowledge (Testimony) in Indian Philosophy (revised reprint), Delhi: DK PrintWorld 2008; ‘Nietzsche as ‘Europe’s Buddha’ and Asia’s Superman, Sophia, vol 47/3 2008; Postcolonial Philosophy of Religion (with Andrew Irvine, Ken Surin et al) Springer 2009. Teaches and publishes on Hindu religious philosophies. Also works on political philosophy, pertaining to ethics of rights, theories of justice, capabilities, education and gender issues in third world, particularly South Asian, contexts.

 
Professor Bilimoria is a highly engaging and cheerful individual and it was inspiring to see the amount of ground he covered in six short weeks. He personally tutored 11 students on a wide range of topics and engaged with several professors in various colleges. He also authored several papers and prepared a syllabus on ‘Gandhi and the Civil Rights Movement in America 1893-1993’ for a course he will be teaching in University of California- Berkeley.
 
Lectures he conducted at the Oxford Centre For Hindu Studies:
 
  • The Logical Illumination of Mima?sa and Nyaya (to Navyanyaya) - The evolution of thinking, metaphysics and theology  (apauru?eya, apurva, padarthas, Isvara, vadavivada, hetutarka)
  • Hinduism’s Transnational Diasaporias*: the view from Oceania - (*aporias of diaspora)
  • Indian Practical Ethics: Law, Gender, Justice, Ecological and Bioethical Challenges
2011