Dr Mikel Burley

Profile

Philosophy of religion; religious ethics; comparative and cross-cultural philosophy and religion; South Asian religious and philosophical traditions (esp. Hindu and Buddhist); Wittgenstein

BA (Essex)
MA (Nottingham)
PhD, MA (Leeds)
PhD (Bristol)

Research Interests

• Philosophy of religion
• Religious ethics
• Comparative and cross-cultural philosophy and religion
• South Asian religious and philosophical traditions (esp. Hindu and Buddhist)
• Philosophical and interdisciplinary research methods
• Death, illness and emotion
• Conceptions of immortality and eternal life
• Rebirth and reincarnation
• Wittgenstein and Wittgensteinian approaches

Research Supervision

• Dr Mikel (Mik) Burley welcomes applications from students wishing to carry out research related to any of his research interests.

Teaching

• Religion, Belief and Ethics
• Hindu Traditions
• Buddhism
• Introduction to South Asian Religions

Funded Research Projects

• Philosophy of Religions: Cross-Cultural, Multi-Religious Approaches, comprising a two-day conference (3-4 July 2018) plus a special issue of Religious Studies in 2020, supported by Cambridge University Press and The Spalding Trust.
• Immortality and Human Finitude: A Philosophical and Theological Study (2014–15), funded by The Immortality Project, which is supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

Publications

Books

• A Radical Pluralist Philosophy of Religion: Cross-Cultural, Multireligious, Interdisciplinary (London: Bloomsbury, 2020).
• Rebirth and the Stream of Life: A Philosophical Study of Reincarnation, Karma and Ethics (New York: Bloomsbury, 2016).
• Contemplating Religious Forms of Life: Wittgenstein and D. Z. Phillips (New York: Continuum, 2012).
• Classical Samkhya and Yoga: An Indian Metaphysics of Experience (London: Routledge, hbk 2007; pbk 2012).
• Hatha-Yoga: Its Context, Theory and Practice (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2000). German edition: Hatha Yoga: Einheit von Krper, Geist und Seele, trans. Elisabeth Liebl (Munich: Random House, 2005). Romanian edition: Hatha-Yoga. Context, teorie, practica, trans. Walter Fotescu (Bucharest: Herald, 2015).

Edited volumes

• Wittgenstein, Religion and Ethics: New Perspectives from Philosophy and Theology (London: Bloomsbury, 2018).
• Language, Ethics and Animal Life: Wittgenstein and Beyond, co-edited with Niklas Forsberg and Nora Hamalainen (London: Bloomsbury, 2012).

Journal special issue

• Guest editor of Religious Studies 56.1, special issue on ‘Philosophy of Religions: Cross-Cultural, Multi-Religious Approaches’ (March 2020).

Journal articles

• ‘African Religions, Mythic Narratives and Conceptual Enrichment in the Philosophy of Religion’, Religious Studies (forthcoming).
• ‘Narrative Philosophy of Religion: Apologetic and Pluralistic Orientations’, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion. DOI: 10.1007/s11153-019-09730-1.
• 'Religious Pluralisms: From Homogenization to Radicality', Sophia. DOI: 10.1007/s11841-017-0636-3.
• 'Religious Diversity and Conceptual Schemes: Critically Appraising Internalist Pluralism', Sophia. 58.2 (2019): 283-299.
• 'Dance of the Deodhas: Divine Possession, Blood Sacrifice and the Grotesque Body in Assamese Goddess Worship', Religions of South Asia 12.2 (2018): 207-233.
• ‘"A Language in Which to Think of the World": Animism, Indigenous Traditions, and the Deprovincialization of Philosophy of Religion, Part 2', Religious Theory (5 November 2018).
• ‘"A Language in Which to Think of the World": Animism, Indigenous Traditions, and the Deprovincialization of Philosophy of Religion, Part 1', Religious Theory (29 October 2018).
• ‘"Citizens of the Universe": Bryan Van Norden and the Taking Back of Philosophy', Expositions: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities 12.2 (2018): 69–84.
• 'Prioritizing Practice in the Study of Religion: Normative and Descriptive Orientations', International Journal of Philosophy and Theology 79.4 (2018): 437–450.
• 'Thickening Description: Towards an Expanded Conception of Philosophy of Religion', International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 83.1 (2018): 3–19.
• 'Dislocating the Eschaton? Appraising Realized Eschatology', Sophia 56.3 (2017): 435–452.
• ‘"Mountains of Flesh and Seas of Blood": Reflecting Philosophically on Animal Sacrifice through Dramatic Fiction', Journal of the American Academy of Religion 85.3 (2017): 806–832.
• ‘"The Happy Side of Babel": Radical Plurality, Narrative Fiction and the Philosophy of Religion', Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 29.2 (2017): 101–132.
• 'Conundrums of Buddhist Cosmology and Psychology', Numen 64.4 (2017): 343–370.
• 'Eating Human Beings: Varieties of Cannibalism and the Heterogeneity of Human Life', Philosophy 91 (2016): 483–501.
• 'Eternal Life as an Exclusively Present Possession: Perspectives from Theology and the Philosophy of Time', Sophia 55.2 (2016): 145–161
• 'Reincarnation and the Lack of Imagination in Philosophy', Nordic Wittgenstein Review 4 (2015): 39–64.
• 'How to Teach Philosophy of Religion', Teaching Philosophy 38.4 (2015): 427–449.
• '"The End of Immortality!" Eternal Life and the Makropulos Debate', Journal of Ethics 19.3 (2015): 305–321.
• ‘Possibilities of Grieving', Philosophy and Literature 39.1 (2015): 154–171.
• ‘Approaches to Philosophy of Religion: Contemplating the World or Trying to Find Our Way Home?’, Religious Studies 51.2 (2015): 241–259.
• ‘Atheisms and the Purification of Faith’, International Journal of Philosophy and Theology 75.4 (2014): 319–331.
• ‘Taking Reincarnation Seriously: Critical Discussion of Some Central Ideas from John Hick’, International Journal of Philosophy and Theology 75.3 (2014): 236–253.
• ‘Karma and Rebirth in the Stream of Thought and Life’, Philosophy East and West 64.4 (2014): 965–982.
• ‘Karma, Morality, and Evil’, Philosophy Compass 9.6 (2014): 415–430.
• ‘“A Petrification of One’s Own Humanity”? Nonattachment and Ethics in Yoga Traditions’, Journal of Religion 94.2 (2014): 204–228.
• ‘Retributive Karma and the Problem of Blaming the Victim’, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 74.2 (2013): 149–165.
• ‘Reincarnation and Ethics’, Journal of the American Academy of Religion 81.1 (2013): 162–187.
• ‘Atheism and the Gift of Death’, Religious Studies 48.4 (2012): 533–546.
• ‘Reply to Howard Mounce’, Philosophical Investigations 35.3-4 (2012): 377–379.
• ‘Mounce and Winch on Understanding (or Not Understanding) an Indigenous Society’, Philosophical Investigations 35.3-4 (2012): 350–372.
• ‘Contemplating Evil’, Nordic Wittgenstein Review 1.1 (2012): 35–54.
• ‘Believing in Reincarnation’, Philosophy 87 (2012): 261–279.
• ‘D. Z. Phillips’ Contemplations on Religion and Literature’, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 71.1 (2012): 21–37.
• ‘God’s Reality, Matters of Fact and D. Z. Phillips’, Ars Disputandi 11.1 (2011): 101–117.
• 'Emotion and Anecdote in Philosophical Argument: The Case of Havi Carel's Illness', Metaphilosophy 42.1-2 (2011): 33-48.
• 'Winch and Wittgenstein on Moral Harm and Absolute Safety', International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 67.2 (2010): 81-94.
• 'Is There a Tension in Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Religion?', Heythrop Journal 51.6 (2010): 1000-1010.
• 'Epicurus, Death, and the Wrongness of Killing', Inquiry 53.1 (2010): 68-86.
• 'Immortality and Meaning: Reflections on the Makropulos Debate', Philosophy 84 (2009): 529-547.
• 'Immortality and Boredom: A Response to Wisnewski', International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 65.2 (2009): 77-85.
• 'The B-Theory of Time and the Fear of Death', Polish Journal of Philosophy 2.2 (2008): 21-38.
• 'Phillips and Realists on Religious Beliefs and the Fruits Thereof', International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 64.3 (2008): 141-153.
• 'Harry Silverstein's Four-Dimensionalism and the Purported Evil of Death', International Journal of Philosophical Studies 16.4 (2008): 559-568.
• 'Should a B-Theoretic Atheist Fear Death?', Ratio 21.3 (2008): 260-272.
• 'Phillips and Eternal Life: A Response to Haldane', Philosophical Investigations 31.3 (2008): 237-251.
• 'A Place for "Something It Is Like" in Our Language', Philosophical Writings 35 (2007): 17-30.
• 'Lucretius' Symmetry Argument and the Determinacy of Death', Philosophical Forum 38.4 (2007): 327-341.
• 'Beyond "Beyond A- and B-Time"', Philosophia 34 (2006): 411-416.
• 'Anticipating Annihilation', Inquiry 49.2 (2006): 170-185.
• 'Bradley and Schopenhauer, and the Epicurean Argument Concerning Death', Bradley Studies 10.1-2 (2004): 42-54.
• '"Aloneness" and the Problem of Realism in Classical Samkhya and Yoga', Asian Philosophy 14.3 (2004): 223-238.

Chapters in books

• ‘“A Certain Purity of Attention to the World”: The Ethical Demands of Wittgensteinian Philosophizing’, in Hartmut von Sass and Richard Amesbury, eds. Doing Ethics after Wittgenstein (New York: Bloomsbury, forthcoming).
• ‘Yoga and Philosophy: Ontology, Epistemology, Ethics’, in Suzanne Newcombe and Karen O’Brien-Kop, eds. Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies (London: Routledge, forthcoming).
• ‘The Purported Realism of Classical Yoga’, in Christopher Key Chapple and Ana Laura Funes Maderey, eds. Thinking with the Yoga Sūtra of Patañjali: Translation and Interpretation (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2019), 55–72.
• '"Being Near Enough to Listen": Wittgenstein and Interreligious Understanding', in Gorazd Andrej and Daniel H. Weiss, eds. Interpreting Interreligious Relations with Wittgenstein: Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies (Leiden: Brill, 2019), 33–53. 
• 'Wittgenstein and the Study of Religion: Beyond Fideism and Atheism', in Mikel Burley, ed., Wittgenstein, Religion and Ethics: New Perspectives from Philosophy and Theology (London: Bloomsbury, 2018), 49-75.
• 'Samkhya', in Purushottama Bilimoria and Amy Rayner, eds, Routledge History of Indian Philosophy (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018), 131-140.
• 'Rebirth', in Yujin Nagasawa and Benjamin Matheson, eds, Palgrave Handbook to the Afterlife (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2017), 235-254.
• 'Imagining Philosophy of Religion Differently: Interdisciplinary Wittgensteinian Approaches', in Michael A. Peters and Jeffrey Stickney, eds, A Companion to Wittgenstein on Education: Pedagogical Investigations (Springer, 2017), 715–727.
• 'Rebirth and "Ethicisation" in Greek and South Asian Thought', in Richard Seaford, ed., Universe and Inner Self in Early Indian and Early Greek Thought (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016), 220–234. 
• ‘The Analysis of Experience in Classical Samkhya’, in Jessica Frazier, ed., Categorisation in Indian Philosophy: Thinking Inside the Box (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014), 41–58.
• ‘Wittgenstein, Religion, and the Rejection of Metaphysics’, in Hannes Nykanen, Ylva Gustafsson, and Camilla Kronqvist, eds, Wittgensteinian Approaches to Ethics and the Philosophy of Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013), 74–91.
• ‘Wittgenstein, Wonder and Attention to Animals’, in Niklas Forsberg, Mikel Burley and Nora Hamalainen, eds, Language, Ethics and Animal Life: Wittgenstein and Beyond (London: Bloomsbury, 2012), 166–178.
• ‘Self, Consciousness, and Liberation in Classical Samkhya’, in Irina Kutznetsover, Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad and Jonardon Ganeri, eds, Hindu and Buddhist Ideas in Dialogue: Self and No-Self (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012), 47–62.
• ‘From Fusion to Confusion: A Consideration of Sex and Sexuality in Traditional and Contemporary Yoga’, in Mark Singleton and Jean Byrne, eds, Yoga in the Modern World: Contemporary Perspectives (London: Routledge, 2008), 184–203.

Conference proceedings

• ‘Memory and Reincarnation’, in Mind, Language and Action: Papers of the 36th International Wittgenstein Symposium, ed. Danile Moyal-Sharrock, Volker A. Munz and Annalisa Coliva (Kirchberg am Wechsel: Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society, 2013), pp. 66–68.

Annotated bibliography

• ‘Samkhya and Philosophical Yoga’, Oxford Bibliographies in ‘Hinduism’, ed. Alf Hiltebeitel (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).

Shorter articles

• ‘Q&A with Mikel Burley about his new book, A Radical Pluralist Philosophy of Religion’, Religion in Public, 31 January 2020.
• ‘Researcher of the Month – December 2019, Dr Mikel Burley’, Religion in Public, 10 December 2019.
• 'Non-attachment and Ethics in Yoga Traditions', Devon School of Yoga website (2016).
• 'Eternal Life as a Present Possession', Challenging Religious Issues, No. 8 (2015): 2–7.
• ‘A Dialogue on Immortality’, Think, No. 21 (2009): 91–97.
• ‘Is Death a Bad Thing?’, Think, No. 16 (2008): 59–67.
• ‘The Danish Cartoons: Considering the Consequences’, Think, No. 15 (2007): 77–81.
• ‘Biology and Anti-Homosexual Disgust’, Think, No. 11 (2005): 107–112.
• ‘Yoga gegen Yoga’, trans. into German by Peter Padam Singh, Yoga Aktuell 28 (2004): 52–55.
• ‘Forum Overview’ (on the philosophy of death), The Philosophers’ Magazine, No. 27 (2004): 28–29.

Book reviews

• Review of Beverley Clack and Brian R. Clack, The Philosophy of Religion: A Critical Introduction (3rd edn), in Religious Studies 56.1 (2020): 127–130.
• Review of Paul Draper and J. L. Schellenberg, eds, Renewing Philosophy of Religion, in Religious Studies 55.2 (2019): 279–283.
• Review of Gordon F. David, ed., Ethics without Self, Dharma without Atman: Western and Buddhist Philosophical Traditions in Dialogue, in Reading Religion (12 November 2018).
• Review of Jim Kanaris, ed., Reconfigurations of Philosophy of Religion, in Reading Religion (12 June 2018).
• Review of Jessica Frazier, Hindu Worldviews: Theories of Self, Ritual and Reality, in Religious Studies 54.1 (2018): 150–154.
• Review of Diana Dimitrova, Hinduism and Hindi Theater, in Reading Religion: A Publication of the American Academy of Religion (6 October 2017).
• Review of Asher Walden, The Metaphysics of Kindness: Comparative Studies in Religious Meta-Ethics, in Religious Studies 52.2 (2016): 281–285. 
• Review essay roundtable on Kevin Schilbrack, Philosophy and the Study of Religions: A Manifesto (with Luke Fox, William Wood and Kevin Schilbrack), Journal of the American Academy of Religion 83.1 (2015): 236–260.
• Review of Thomas D. Carroll, Wittgenstein within the Philosophy of Religion, in International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 77.2 (2015): 179–182.
• Review of C. Stephen Evans, God and Moral Obligation, in Philosophical Quarterly 64 (2014): 159–161.
• Review of Andrew Gleeson, A Frightening Love: Recasting the Problem of Evil, in Philosophical Papers 42.1 (2013): 155–159.
• Review of Christopher Bartley, An Introduction to Indian Philosophy, in Religions of South Asia 6.2 (2012): 287–289.
• Review of The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis and Jerry Root, C. S. Lewis and the Problem of Evil, in Religious Studies 47.4 (2011): 532–537.
• Review of Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir, in Religious Studies 47.4 (2011): 527–531.
• Review of Karen Armstrong, The Case for God (unabridged audiobook), in Metapsychology Online Reviews 14.24 (2010).
• Review of Stephen Phillips, Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy, in Metapsychology Online Reviews 14.19 (2010).
• Review of Christopher Hamilton, Middle Age, in the International Journal of Philosophical Studies 18.1 (2010): 136–140.
• Review of Barry Hallen, A Short History of African Philosophy, in Leeds African Studies Bulletin, No. 71 (2009/2010): 72–73.
• Review of Havi Carel, Illness: The Cry of the Flesh, in the International Journal of Philosophical Studies 17.4 (2009): 645-650.
• Review of Knut A. Jacobsen, Kapila: Founder of Samkhya and Avatara of Visnu, in The Journal of Hindu Studies 2.2 (2009): 244-246.
• Review of Gwen Griffith-Dickson, The Philosophy of Religion (SCM Core Text), in The British Journal of Religious Education 29.2 (2007): 189-191.
• Review of H. M. Vroom, A Spectrum of Worldviews: An Introduction to Philosophy of Religion in a Pluralistic World, in Religious Studies 43.1 (2007): 111-116.
• Review of S. N. Tandon, A Re-appraisal of Patajali's Yoga-Sutras in the Light of the Buddha's Teaching, in Traditional Yoga Studies, online (2001).

Selected Presentations

• ‘Samkhya Philosophy and Yoga Practice: How are They Related?’, SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies, 24 June 2020.
• 'Substance, Essence, and Soteriological Practice in Samkhya Philosophy', The Samkhya System: Accounting for the Real Conference, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, 23 March 2018.
• ‘"A Certain Purity of Attention to the World": The Ethical Demands of Wittgensteinian Philosophizing', Doing Ethics after Wittgenstein Conference, Universität Zrich, Switzerland, 22–23 April 2016.
• ‘Imagining Philosophy of Religion Differently: Interdisciplinary Wittgensteinian Approaches’, Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain Conference, Gregynog, Wales, 29 July 2015.
• ‘“Being Near Enough to Listen”: Wittgenstein and Interreligious Understanding’, Wittgenstein and Interreligious Communication, Westminster College, Cambridge, 25 June 2015.
• ‘Immortality and Human Finitude: A Philosophical and Theological Study’, The Immortality Project Capstone Conference, University of California, Riverside, 30 May 2015. 
• ‘Wittgenstein and Philosophy of Religion: Beyond Fideism and Atheism’, 13th British Wittgenstein Society Lecture, Bloomsbury Institute, London, 12 May 2015.
• ‘The Purported Realism of Classical Yoga’, Thinking with the Yoga Sutra: Translation, Interpretation, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, 11 April 2015.
• 'Eternal Life as a Present Possession: Perspectives from Theology and the Philosophy of Time', Life after Death? Perspectives from Philosophy, Theology, Anthropology and Literature Symposium, University of Leeds, 20 March 2015. 
• ‘Mounce and Winch on Understanding (or Not Understanding) an Indigenous Society’, Fourth British Wittgenstein Society Annual Conference, University of Wales, 17 July 2011.

Media appearances

• BBC Radio 4, Beyond Belief, 'Blood', 19 November 2018.

Elsewhere on the Web

• Academia.edu profile

• Philpapers

• Google Scholar

• Devon School of Yoga

Responsibilities

• Assessment Officer

Research interests

• Philosophy of religion
• Religious ethics
• Comparative and cross-cultural philosophy and religion
• South Asian religious and philosophical traditions (esp. Hindu and Buddhist)
• Philosophical and interdisciplinary research methods
• Death, illness and emotion
• Conceptions of immortality and eternal life
• Rebirth and reincarnation
• Wittgenstein and Wittgensteinian approaches

Student education

• Religion, Belief and Ethics
• Hindu Traditions
• Buddhism
• Introduction to South Asian Religions

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Philosophy of Religion and Theology
• Centre for Religion and Public Life
• Philosophy
• Theology and Religious Studies

Current postgraduate researchers

• Annika Dahlin
• Shai Tubali
• Moses Estrada-Alvarez
• James Dylan Russell