Jan Westerhoff
| PersonType | Category:Authors of English Works Category:Professors |
|---|---|
| FirstName / namefirst | Jan |
| LastName / namelast | Westerhoff |
| namemiddle | Christoph |
| MainNamePhon | Jan Westerhoff |
| SortName | Westerhoff, Jan |
| bio | Jan Christoph Westerhoff is a philosopher and orientalist with specific interests in metaphysics and the philosophy of language. He is currently Professor of Buddhist Philosophy in the Faculty of Theology and Religion of the University of Oxford.
Westerhoff was educated at the Annette-von-Droste-Hülshoff Gymnasium, a Gymnasium in Düsseldorf, Germany. He studied philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating with a first class Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1999. He continued his studies of philosophy at Trinity and completed a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree in 2000. He undertook postgraduate research at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge; his doctoral supervisor was Michael Potter. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 2003, with a doctoral thesis titled "An Inquiry into the Notion of an Ontological Category". He undertook research for a second doctorate, this time in Oriental studies, at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (SOAS). He completed his second PhD in 2007 with a doctoral thesis titled "Nāgārjuna's Madhyamaka: A Philosophical Investigation". He is a specialist in metaphysics and Indo-Tibetan philosophy. In particular, his research focuses on the philosophy of the early Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker, Nāgārjuna, with comprehensive books such as Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka. His research interests also include the history of ideas in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His most recent research interests focus on the history of solipsism. (Source Accessed May 12, 2021) |
| associatedwebsite | Personal Website |
| affiliation | Oxford University |
| cv | CV |
| IsInGyatsa | No |
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Full Name
Jan Westerhoff
Affiliation
Present position
- Department of Philosophy, University of Durham
- Lecturer in Philosophy (since 2006)
- since 2009 School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
- Research Associate
Previous positions
- 2007-2009 Graduate Center, City University of New York
- Research Fellow in Philosophy of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Columbia University
- Seminar Associate
- 2003-2006 Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford
- Junior Lecturer in Philosophy
- Linacre College, Oxford
- Junior Research Fellow
Education
- 2005-2007 School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
- PhD in Oriental Studies
- Title: Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka
- Supervised by David Seyfort Ruegg and examined by Tom Tillemans and Theodore Proferes
- 2000-2003 Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge
- PhD in Philosophy
- Title: An inquiry into the notion of an ontological category
- Supervised by Michael Potter and examined by Hugh Mellor and Peter Simons
- 1999-2000 Trinity College, University of Cambridge
- MPhil in Philosophy
- Senior Scholar
- Fellow of the Cambridge European Society
- James Webb Prize for the History of Ideas
- 1996-1999 Trinity College, University of Cambridge
- BA Hons Philosophy (I)
- Senior Scholar
- Scholar of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes,
- James Webb Prize for the History of Ideas
Other Information
Website with detailed description of current work
Sastravid: A New Paradigm for the Study of Indian Philosophy
Since October 2010 the Department of Philosophy at the University of Durham is hosting a four-year research project on Indian philosophical texts funded by the European Research Council. The aim of this project, led by Dr Jan Westerhoff, is to construct a new electronic framework for the encoding of Indian philosophical texts, together with a newly developed method of displaying and analyzing the texts' contents.
Publications List
Books
- Reality. A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2011.
- Twelve Examples of Illusion. Oxford University Press, 2010.
- The Dispeller of Disputes. Nagarjuna's Vigrahavyavartani. Oxford University Press, 2010.
- Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka. A Philosophical Investigation, Oxford University Press, 2009.
- Ontological Categories: Their Nature and Significance. Oxford University Press, 2005. Hardback £35.00 ISBN 0-19-928504-7
Reviews of Ontological Categories:
- The Philosophical Quarterly, volume 57, number 227, April 2007 , pages 301-303.
- Rivista di Recensioni Filosofiche, volume 3, 2006-2007, pages 113-124.
- (Source)
Co-authored:
Moonshadows: The Theory of the Two Truths from Candrakirti to the Present, Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2010.
Articles
"Costruzioni senza fine? Un problema per il costruttivismo Goodmaniano", Rivista di estetica, 2009, 41:2, 101-107.
"Nagarjuna's arguments on motion revisited", Journal of Indian Philosophy, 2008, 36:4, 455-480.
"The Madhyamaka Concept of svabhava: Ontological and Cognitive Aspects", Asian Philosophy, 2007, 17:1, 17-45.
"Nagarjuna's catuskoti", Journal of Indian Philosophy, 2006, 34, 367-395.
"Logical Relations between Pictures", Journal of Philosophy, 2005, 102: 12, 603-623.
"The Construction of Ontological Categories", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 2004 82:4, 595-620.
"A Taxonomy of Composition Operations", Logique & Analyse, 2004, 185-188, 375-393.
"The Underdetermination of Typings", Erkenntnis, 2003, 58:3, 379-414.
"Ars Characteristica Kantiana. Ludwig Benedict Trede's Forgotten Necessary Grammar", Kant-Studien, 2003, 94, 3, 333-351.
"Defining Ontological Categories in an Expansion of Belief Dynamics", Logic and Logical Philosophy, 2002, 10, 3, 199-210.
"The Definition of 'Ontological Category'", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 2002, 102, 3, 287-293.
"A World of Signs. Baroque Pansemioticism, the Polyhistor and the Early Modern Wunderkammer.", Journal for the History of Ideas, 62, 4, 2001, 633-650.
"Ontologische Notwendigkeit.", Metaphysica, Special Edition 1, 2000, 119-140.
"Polyhistor and Poeta Doctus. Notes on the Baroque Conception of Signs and Significations", Beiträge zur Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft , 10, 2000, 91-130.
"Harsdörffer, Leibniz and the Universal Characteristic", Journal for the History of Ideas, 60, 3, 1999, 449-467.
"Poësis Combinatoria. Relations between the Project of the Characteristica Universalis and German Baroque Poetry.", Beiträge zur Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft , 8, 1998, 209-244.
Book Reviews
Review of Jonathan Lowe "The Four-Category Ontology: A Metaphysical Foundation for Natural Science" OUP, 2006, Mind, 2007, 116, 759-762.
Review of Jaap Maat "Philosophical Languages in the Seventeenth Century: Dalgarno, Wilkins, Leibniz" Kluwer, 2004, Mind, 2006, 115, 444-447.
Review of Volker Peckhaus, Christian Thiel "Disziplinen im Kontext", Wilhem Fink, 1999, literaturkritik.de No. 4, 2000
Review of Vittorio Hösle "Die Philosophie und die Wissenschaften", C.H.Beck, 1999, literaturkritik.de No. 6, 2000
Review of "Zeitschrift für Philosophie", Information Philosophie No. 2, 2000, pp. 128-130.
Review of Edward Craig (ed.), 1998, "Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy", Information Philosophie No. 1, 2000, pp. 62-66.
"Neue Logik-Lehrbücher" Information Philosophie No. 2, 1999, pp. 68-71.
Logic software, Information Philosophie No. 4, 1998, 70-71.
Review of David Bostock, 1997, "Intermediate Logic" Information Philosophie No. 3, 1998, 66.
"Gefährliche Beziehungen. Wittgenstein, Hitler und der Holocaust" Review of Kimberley Cornish: The Jew of Linz (1998) literaturkritik.de June 1999.
Review of Roy Porter, 2002, "Madness. A brief history" The Cambridge Student 21.06.2002, 26.
Review of Alberto Manguel, 2000, "Bilder Lesen" literaturkritik.de July 2001.
Review of Jorge Luis Borges, 1999-2000, "Collected Fiction, Non-Fiction and Poetry" The Cambridge Student 24.02.2000, 19.
Review of Umberto Eco, 1999, "Serendipities. Language and Lunacy," The Cambridge Student 17.02.2000, 22.
Review of Louis Buss, 1999, "Der Luxus des Exils" literaturkritik.de July 1999.
Review of John Lanchester, 1996, "Die Lust und ihr Preis" literaturkritik.de July 1999.
Miscellanea
"Making sense of verse 29 of Nagarjuna's Vigrahavyavartani" in D'Amato, Garfield, Tillemans (eds): Pointing at the Moon. Buddhism, Logic, Analytic Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2009, 21-45.
"Abhidharma Philosophy", William Edelglass, Jay Garfield (eds): Oxford Handbook of World Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2010.
"Nagarjuna", Ed Zalta (ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2010.
"Gottlob Frege", Wulff Rehfus (ed.): Handwörterbuch Philosophie , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht: Göttingen 2003.
"Defining 'Ontological Category'", Roxanne Fay (ed.) Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Harvard-MIT Graduate Student Conference in Philosophy, Cambridge, MA, 2001, 1-12.
"Gödel, Frege, Scholz. The Leibnizian Conception of the characteristica universalis and the Possibility of a Formal Philosophy", Individuation, Sympnoia panta, Harmonia, Emanation. Festgabe für Heinrich Schepers , Nodus: Münster 2000, 61-96.
"Wir finden in unserem Alltag viel mehr Philosophie als wir eigentlich vermuten sollten." Interview with Edward Craig. Information Philosophie No. 3, 1999, 31-66.