Dr Jack Beaulieu

Background

I joined Magdalen as a Fellow by Examination in Philosophy in October 2024. Before that, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto, where I completed my PhD in Philosophy. I obtained my BA from the University of British Columbia. 

Research

I am a historian of Sanskrit philosophy. My research focuses primarily on the realist tradition of Nyāya, with especial emphasis on early-modern “new” Nyāya authors such as Gaṅgeśa and Raghunātha. I often also work on authors from the Prābhākara tradition, whose views Gaṅgeśa and his followers critically engage. 

Philosophically, my interests lie broadly in epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and the intersections of these areas. Much of my research has explored the question of how we come to learn of absence: When you notice that your keys are not in their usual spot, how do you do so? In particular, I have focused on the Nyāya view that we learn of absence perceptually, and I have paired this with research on their closely related view that absences are unique entities that cannot reduce to positives. Currently, I am working on Nyāya and Prābhākara views about introspection, the process by which we learn of our own mental states. I am also well underway with a pedagogical project: a philosophical, student-friendly translation of Mokṣākaragupta’s Language of Reasoning, an introductory Buddhist text written for students.

For my research, I was awarded the 2023 Rogers Prize from the British Journal for the History of Philosophy, its annual prize for best article. 

Publications

“Raghunātha on Seeing Absence” (2023). British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 31(3):421–447. Awarded the Rogers Prize.

“Śālikanātha on Absence in the Pramāṇapārāyaṇa: An Introduction and Translation” (2023). Journal of Indian Philosophy, 51(3):215–238.

“Gaṅgeśa on Absence in Retrospect” (2021). Journal of Indian Philosophy, 49(4): 603–639.