Event
International and Interdisciplinary Conference
Topic: Language, Culture and Reality: East and West
Venue: University of Pennsylvania—October 3-4, 2014
LGBT Center at the University of Pennsylvania
3907 Spruce St, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Friday October 3-4, 2014
Schedule for Friday, October 3rd:
10 AM: Informal gathering
10.15: Welcome by Daud Ali, Associate Professor of South Asia Studies and Chair of the South Asia Center
10.30: Welcome Address by Deven Patel, Associate Professor of South Asia Studies
10.50: Welcome Address by Dr. Chandana Chakrabarti, ICCSAE, USA
11am-Noon: Session 1
Chair: Michael Berman, Brock University, Canada
Keynote Address:
“Universals in Language and Reality”
Kisor Chakrabarti,ICCSAE, USA
12-1 PM: Break
1 PM-3 PM: Session 2
Chair: Charles B. Jones, The Catholic University of America, USA
1-1.30pm
“A Short Note on an Indirect Unity:Merleau-Ponty and Nāgārjuna on the Human and Non-human”
Michael Berman,Brock University, Canada
1.30pm-2pm
“Jaina Philosophy and the Enigma of Nonviolent Communication”
Scott R. Stroud, University of Texas at Austin, USA
2-2.30pm
“Focusing the Village: The Real India through the Eyes of Prafulla Mohanti and Satyajit Ray”
Geoffrey Kain, Embry- Riddle Aeronautical University, USA
2.30-3pm
“Political Ecology of Caste Identity and Relations: The Case of Savaras in Chintaguda”
Lakshman Kalasapudi, University of Manitoba, Canada
3-3.30pm
Meet the Authors:
Kisor K. Chakrabarti,ICCSAE, USA
Deven Patel, University of Pennsylvania
3:30 PM-6 PM: Session 3
Chair:-Scott Stroud, University of Texas at Austin, USA
3.30-4pm
“The Mythology of Venus”
Helen Benigni, Davis and Elkins College,USA
4-4.30pm
“Jesuit-Chinese Interactions in the Late Ming Dynasty: Lost in Translation?”
Charles B. Jones, The Catholic University of America, USA
4.30-5pm
“Modern Confucianism and Culture Essentialism in Liang Shuming's Early Cultural Theory"
Jingjing Li, Mcgill University, Canada
5-5.30pm
“Transcending Objectified Notions of the Absolute ”
Jason Kunen, Haverford College, USA
5.30-6pm
“Pedagogy of the Interdisciplinary and the Privilege of Crossing Borders”, William Westerman,New Jersey City College
Schedule for Saturday, October 4th:
9 AM-Noon: Session
Chair: ”, Geoffrey Kain, , Embry- Riddle Aeronautical University, USA
9-9.30
“A Characterlogical Evaluation of Sinchunji in the Conventional NRM (New Religious Movements) Model”
Song-Chong Lee, The University of Findlay, USA
9.30-10am
“Populations of Worthlessness”
Lynette Parker, New York University, USA
10-10.30am
“Cultural Evolution of Shame”
Bongrae Seok, Alvernia University, USA
10.30-11am
“The Mathematical and Metaphysical One”
Ajaya Naik, India
11-11.30am
“On The Reconciliation of Positivism AND Theism in Realism”
David McGraw,Wayne County Community College
11.30-Noon
“On the Necessity of Reflective Reasoning & Critical Argumentation in India Today “
Lee A. McBride and R. N. Choudhury, College of Wooster, USA
12-1: Break
1 PM-4:30 PM: Session 2
Chair: Lynette Parker, New York University, USA
1-1.30pm
“Yoga: What is Lost in Translation”
Delia Kain, Florida State University,USA
1.30-2-pm
“Language and Culture acting as elements of discord, case study comparison between West and East”
Tanushree Das, Bijoy Krishna Girls’ College, India
2-2.30-pm
“Exploring Hinduism”
Pamela Delarosa, Georgia Southern University, USA
2:30-3-pm
“Weaving Kabir: the Fabrication of “Kabirness” in Early Texts”
Zhang Minyu, Peking University, China
3-3.30pm
“Area Studies and the Discourse of Knowledge:OnResituating an Academic Discipline”
Mao Chen, Skidmore College,USA
3.30-4pm
“East meets West: A Critical Appraisal of Advaitic Epistemology from a Rortyian Perspective”
Finney Premkumar, Azusa Pacific University, USA
4-4.30pm
“Nāgārjuna's So-called Absolutism”
David Simone, University of New Mexico, USA
4:30-5pm
“Cultural commensurability/incommensurability and translation”
Yuliya Fadeeva, Duisburg-Essen University, Germany
Meet the Authors
Kisor Kumar Chakrabarti is a former Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Religion of the Davis and Elkins College (where he has served as the Provost and Dean of the Faculty), the Bethany College, the Ferrum College, etc. and has taught at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Maine, Orono, the Kutztown University and the University of Calcutta. He has held research fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, the Indian Institute for Advanced Study, Shimla, the University of Pittsburgh and the Australian National University. He has received numerous honors and awards and is a three times recipient of Fulbright grants. He is fluent in Sanskrit and studied for decades original Sanskrit works of classical Indian philosophical schools under the guidance of eminent pundits. He is a leading authority on Indian and comparative philosophy. He is also devoted to the study of Greek philosophy from original Greek sources and has taught modern and contemporary philosophy for several decades. He has authored (besides seventy eight research papers and articles mainly on topics of comparative logic, epistemology and metaphysics) The Logic of Gotama (University of Hawaii Press, 1978), Definition and Induction (University of Hawaii Press, 1995), Classical Indian Philosophy of Mind (State University of New York Press, 1999), Classical Indian Philosophy of Induction (Rowman and Littlefield, 2010) and Major Doctrines of Hinduism and Buddhism, Magnus Publications, 2012.
Major Doctrines of Hinduism and Buddhism
This work is devoted to an exposition of selected major doctrines and themes of Hinduism and Buddhism. The first chapter gives an overview of the Hindu view of religious pluralism, basic values, stages of life and society. The second and third chapters give an account of principal Hindu goddesses and gods. The fourth and the fifth chapters lay down the philosophical foundations of the Hindu and the Buddhist views of the self and transmigration. The sixth chapter explains the Hindu perspective on ecology and non-violence. The seventh chapter expounds the rationale for the grammarian doctrine of eternal word. The eighth chapter briefly introduces the pre-Buddhist world views prevalent in India. The ninth chapter gives an account of the origin of Buddhism and the life of the historical Buddha. The tenth, the final chapter, gives an exposition of the major teachings of early Buddhism.
The book provides an introductory survey of Hinduism and Buddhism. It is suitable for undergraduate courses as well as general readers interested in the subject.
York Press, 1999) and Classical Indian Philosophy of Induction (Rowman and Littlefield, 2010).
Professor Deven Patel is a philologist, a linguist, and a literary critic. His research fuses the study of texts in various South Asian languages, especially Sanskrit, with the development of the region’s artistic cultures through time. His research is concerned with critically understanding the ways in which the Sanskrit tradition has informed—and continues to inform—South Asia’s cultural history in terms of literature, religion, art, and philosophy as well as the social and emotional life of contemporary Indians connected to it. He has published on literary cultures in history, on South Asian aesthetics and their relationship to other philosophical traditions, and on the convergence of the literary and the visual in early India. His secondary and tertiary research interests include: translation studies, comparative philosophy and critical theory, and the religions of Asia, especially Buddhism. His recent publications include: Text to Tradition: The Naisadhiyacarita and Literary Community in South Asia, a monograph published by Columbia University Press in 2014; several articles with the Journal of the American Oriental Society, the Journal of Indian Philosophy, Asian Philosophy, and Art in Translation. His current projects include a co-written monograph on the literary and artistic aspects of a 15th century illustrated scroll-manuscript of the Vasantavilasa (in the Freer Gallery, Washington D.C.), tentatively entitled Text and Textile in Medieval Western India: The Freer Scroll of the Vasantavilasa; a translation of a fourteenth-century anthology of Sanskrit poetry entitled An Ambrosia-filled Moon of Eloquence (Subhasitasudhanidhi): A Fourteenth-century Anthology of Sanskrit Verse; an English translation of one of the earliest grammars of a regional South Asian language (Telugu) composed in Sanskrit, entitled Āndhraśabdacintāmaṇi; and a full-length book on translation practices in South Asia from 1300 to the Present.
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Deven M. Patel. Text to Tradition: The Naisadhiyacarita and Literary Community in South Asia. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.
Written in the twelfth century, the Naisadhiyacarita ("The Adventures of Nala," "King of Nisadha") is a seminal Sanskrit poem beloved by South Asian literary communities for nearly a millennium. This volume introduces readers to the poem's author, his reading communities, the modes through which the poem has been read and used, the contexts through which it became canonical, its literary offspring, and the emotional power it still holds for the culture that values it. The study privileges the intellectual, affective, and social forms of cultural practice informing a region's people and institutions. It treats literary texts as traditions in their own right and draws attention to the critical genres and actors involved in their reception.