New Books in Buddhist Studies

Christian Coseru on Perceiving Reality

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What does it mean to perceive and just how capable are we of perceiving reality? This is a core question in the work of Christian Coseru, who is today’s guest. He is the Lightsey Humanities chair and Professor of Philosophy at the College of Charleston. Christian works in the fields of philosophy of mind, phenomenology, and cross-cultural philosophy, especially Indian and Buddhist philosophy in dialogue with Western philosophy and cognitive science.

He is the author of Perceiving Reality: Consciousness, Intentionality, and Cognition in Buddhist Philosophy (Oxford UP, 2012, pbk 2015), and editor of Reasons and Empty Persons: Mind, Metaphysics, and Morality. Essays in Honor of Mark Siderits (Springer, 2023).

Christian spent four and a half years in India in the mid 1990s pursuing studies in Sanskrit and Indian Philosophy. While in India, he was affiliated with several research institutes, including the Maha Body Society, the Asiatic Society of Calcutta and the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies.

We discuss;

  • Perceiving Reality and where current ongoing debates are on this immense topic.
  • How confident we can be that phenomenological experience of reality is real and accurate.
  • Where current theories are on the question of consciousness.
  • The social role of cognition and the topic of mediation.
  • What he makes of panpsychism andits return and relationship with physicalism.
  • How such theories are represented in Buddhism.
  • Working definitions of human flourishing and whether they are at all indebted to Buddhism.
  • The question of Self, no-self without Buddhism.


    • The episode is sponsored by O’Connell Coaching. Music is supplied by Cosmic Link.

    Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha).

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