Dreyfus

dreyfusGeorge Dreyfus
Jackson Professor of Religion

Office: Hollander Hall, Room 357
Phone: 413-597-2162
E-mail: [email protected]

Education
· Ph.D. in History of Religions at the University of Virginia (Ontology, Philosophy of Language, and Epistemology in Buddhist Tradition), 1991
· Geshe Lharampa (final degree in the curriculum of Tibetan Buddhist monastic universities), 1985

Courses
· REL 288/PHIL 288: The Embodied Mind: Meditative Practices, the Mind Sciences and the Philosophy of Mind
· REL 287: The Dynamics of Globalization: Society, Religion and the Environment
· REL 304/ENGL 386/COMP 344: From Hermeneutics to Postcoloniality and Beyond
· REL 245: Tibetan Civilization
· REL 251/ASST 255: Buddhism in Society
· REL 244/ASST 244: Mind and Person in Indian Thought

Current Research Interests
· Issues in the philosophy of mind, particularly the study of cognitive processes, theories of consciousness, nature of attention, perception and concept formation.
· Indian Buddhist philosophy (philosophy of mind, epistemology, metaphysics); fusion philosophy (consciousness studies, metaphysics, skepticism).
· Theory and method in the study of religion and modernity: the role and nature of religions in a global world, the rise of new religious forms, and the relation between religious and secularist views in the global context. The role of religion in the rise of contemporary forms of nationalism, particularly in Buddhist countries.

Program Connections
· Cognitive Theory
· Neuroscience
· Psychology
· Philosophy
· Asian Studies

Selected Publications

  • The Sound of Two Hands Clapping: the Education of a Tibetan Buddhist Monk, (University of California, 2003).
  • Recognizing Reality: Dharmakirti’s Philosophy and its Tibetan Interpretations, (Suny: 1997).
  • “Self and Subjectivity: a Middle Way Approach” in Self vs. No-Self (Oxford University Press, 2010)
  • “Can a Madhyamika be a Skeptic?” in Moonshadows: Conventional Truth in Buddhist Philosophy (Oxford, 2010)
  • “Should We Be Afraid? The Return of the Sacred and the Rise of Religious Nationalism.” (2010)
  • “Philosophical Issues, Asian Perspectives: Indian Theories of the Mind” in Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness, 2007.
  • “Emotional Pathologies and their Remedies: An Abhidharmic View,” in The Dalai Lama at MIT, 2007.