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About Malcolm Keating

Malcolm Keating is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Yale-NUS College. His research focuses on Sanskrit works of philosophy in Indian traditions, in the areas of language and epistemology. He is the author of Language, Meaning, and Use in Indian Philosophy (Bloomsbury Press, 2019) and host of the podcast Sutras & Stuff.

Malcolm Keating is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Yale-NUS College. His research focuses on Sanskrit works of philosophy in Indian traditions, in the areas of language and epistemology. He is the author of Language, Meaning, and Use in Indian Philosophy (Bloomsbury Press, 2019) and host of the podcast Sutras & Stuff.

Malcolm's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Malcolm:

Philosophy November 21, 2022

The Tattvasaṃgraha Of Śāntarakṣita

Selected Metaphysical Chapters

Charles Goodman

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
The Tattvasaṃgraha of Śāntarakṣita: Selected Metaphysical Chapters (Oxford University Press, 2022) collects excerpts from a massive encyclopedic work of the late period of Buddhism in India. Translator Charles Goodman has …
Language October 27, 2022

The Human Mind Through the Lens of Language

Generative Explorations

Nirmalangshu Mukherji

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
Some time, millenia ago, people began using sounds: to coordinate, to solve problems, to think. Explaining this leap—from non-linguistic beings to language-users—Nirmalangshu Mukherji argues that we shouldn’t focus only on …
Philosophy October 20, 2022

Cross-Cultural Existentialism

On the Meaning of Life in Asian and Western Thought

Leah Kalmanson

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
Does human existence have a meaning? If so, is that meaning found in the world outside of us, or is it something we bring to our experience? In Cross-Cultural Existentialism …
Philosophy August 19, 2022

African Philosophy

Emancipation and Practice

Pascah Mungwini

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
In African Philosophy: Emancipation and Practice (Bloomsbury, 2022), Pascah Mungwini considers the history of African philosophy in relationship to world philosophies. Arguing for the importance of African philosophy to know …
Philosophy June 20, 2022

How Things Are

An Introduction to Buddhist Metaphysics

Mark Siderits

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
Mark Siderits’ How Things Are: An Introduction to Buddhist Metaphysics (Oxford University Press, 2022) is a wide-ranging survey of how Buddhist philosophers think about the nature of the world. The …
Philosophy April 20, 2022

Language, Limits, and Beyond

Early Wittgenstein and Rabindranath Tagore

Priyambada Sarkar

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
What does a Bengali intellectual and poet have in common with a British-Austrian logician and philosopher? In Language, Limits, and Beyond: Early Wittgenstein and Rabindranath Tagore (Oxford University Press, 2021) …
Language March 23, 2022

Language Vs. Reality

Why Language Is Good for Lawyers and Bad for Scientists

N. J. Enfield

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
Nick Enfield’s book, Language vs. Reality: Why Language is Good for Lawyers and Bad for Scientists (MIT Press, 2022), argues that language is primarily for social coordination, not precisely transferring …
Philosophy February 21, 2022

Buddhist Ethics

A Philosophical Exploration

Jay L. Garfield

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
In Buddhist Ethics: A Philosophical Exploration (Oxford University Press, 2022), Jay Garfield argues that Buddhist ethics is a distinctive kind of moral phenomenology whose ethical focus is not primarily cultivation …
Philosophy January 20, 2022

The Analects: A Guide

Erin M. Cline

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
Probably the most well-known Chinese philosopher around the world is Kongzi, typically called by his Latinized name, “Confucius.” And yet he did not write a single book. Rather, his students …
Philosophy November 19, 2021

Reconsidering the Life of Power

Ritual, Body, and Art in Critical Theory and Chinese Philosophy

James Garrison

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
Reconsidering the Life of Power: Ritual, Body, and Art in Critical Theory and Chinese Philosophy by James Garrison (SUNY Press 2021), argues that the tradition of Confucian philosophy can provide …
Language November 3, 2021

Making AI Intelligible

Philosophical Foundations

Herman Cappelen and Josh Dever

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
In their open-access publication, Making AI Intelligible: Philosophical Foundations (Oxford University Press, 2021), Herman Cappelen and Josh Dever argue that philosophers of language can contribute to a deeper understanding of …
Language October 6, 2021

Orientalism, Philology, and the Illegibility of the Modern World

Henning Trüper

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
At the turn of the nineteenth century, European philologists were engaged in the study of Semitic languages and Indology, breaking with the past in many ways. To understand this period …
Philosophy September 20, 2021

Jewel of Reflection on the Truth about Epistemology

A Complete and Annotated Translation of the Tattva-cintā-maṇi

Stephen Phillips (trans.)

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
In the first complete English translation of a monumental 14th century Sanskrit philosophical text, the Jewel of Reflection on the Truth about Epistemology (Bloomsbury 2020), Stephen Phillips introduces modern readers to …
Philosophy July 20, 2021

Buddhist Feminism

Transforming Anger against Patriarchy

Sokthan Yeng

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
How can Buddhism and feminism be brought together in a constructive way to challenge patriarchial structures? What could such a philosophy say about anger over injustice and oppression? In Buddhist …
Philosophy May 20, 2021

Realisms Interlinked

Objects, Subjects, and Other Subjects

Arindam Chakrabarti

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
Arindam Chakrabarti’s Realisms Interlinked: Objects, Subjects, and Other Subjects (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019), not only brings together his wide-ranging research from the past three decades, but brings together Indian philosophers with …
Language April 21, 2021

Why Chimpanzees Can't Learn Language and Only Humans Can

Herbert S. Terrace

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
Through discussion of his famous 1970s experiment alongside new research, in Why Chimpanzees Can’t Learn Language and Only Humans Can (Columbia University Press, 2019), Herbert Terrace argues that, despite the …
Language March 24, 2021

On the Offensive

Prejudice in Language Past and Present

Karen Stollznow

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
Whether framed as complaints about cancel culture or as increased awareness of prejudice, stories about offensive language are common in our daily news cycle. In On the Offensive: Prejudice in …
Philosophy March 19, 2021

A Practical Guide to World Philosophies

Selves, Worlds, and Ways of Knowing

Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach and Leah Kalmanson

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
The first book in a new series, A Practical Guide to World Philosophies: Selves, Worlds, and Ways of Knowing (Bloomsbury Academic 2021), co-authored by Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach and Leah Kalmanson, introduces …
Language March 16, 2021

Talk about Faith

How Debate and Conversation Shape Belief

Stephen Pihlaja

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
Religious people have a range of new media in which they can share their beliefs and reflect on what it means to believe, to act, and to be members of …
Language January 6, 2021

Extraterrestrial Languages

Daniel Oberhaus

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
In Extraterrestrial Languages (MIT Press 2020), Daniel Oberhaus tells the history of human efforts to talk to aliens, but in doing so, the book reflects on the relationship between communication …
Language January 5, 2021

Changing Minds

How Aging Affects Language and How Language Affects Aging

Roger Kreuz and Richard Roberts

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
Everyone ages, and just about everyone uses language, making Changing Minds: How Aging Affects Language and How Language Affects Aging (MIT Press, 2019) a book with practically universal relevance. The …
Language December 4, 2020

Fiction

A Philosophical Analysis

Catharine Abell

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
In Fiction: A Philosophical Analysis (Oxford University Press, 2020), Catharine Abell draws our attention to the character of Emma Woodhouse. She is handsome, clever, and rich. Or, at least, that's what …
Language November 24, 2020

Indian Perspectives on Consciousness, Language and Self

The School of Recognition on Linguistics and Philosophy of Mind

Marco Ferrante

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
For many Indian philosophers, language is inextricably tied up with conceptualization. In Indian Perspectives on Consciousness, Language and Self (Routledge, 2020), Marco Ferrante shows how a set of tenth century …
Language October 28, 2020

How Dead Languages Work

Coulter George

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
After reading How Dead Languages Work (Oxford University Press 2020), Coulter George hopes you might decide to learn a bit of ancient Greek or Sanskrit, or maybe dabble in a …