Aamir Kaderbhai

I have completed two degrees at Oxford University, an undergraduate degree in Theology and Religion and a Masters in the Study of Religion. During the latter, I wrote a thesis on Śāntideva's Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra that aimed to discern the nature of phenomenological transformation implicit within the text's philosophy by comparing it with the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. Building on the comparative methodology I explored here to look more deeply into classical Indian philosophies of transformation, my DPhil will focus on the Yogavāsiṣṭha’s conception of phenomenological transformation through philosophical-meditative practice. In particular I hope to read the paradoxes implicit within the narrative portions of the text in the light of the contemporary philosophical work of scholars such as Graham Priest and Jay Garfield. By taking the Yogavāsiṣṭha seriously as philosophy and reading it alongside contemporary discussion of paradox and self transformation, this study aims to respond to recent appeals to decolonise philosophy whilst also revealing aspects of a medieval Indian intellectual milieu and its meditation-influenced traditions.