Mikel Burley is a scholar of religion and philosophy, known for his work on the Hindu and Buddhist traditions.
Biography
Burley gained his B.A. in 1993 from the
University of Essex, his M.A. from the
University of Nottingham in 1997, and Ph.D.s from the
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a Red brick university, red brick Russell Group research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Society of Merchant Venturers, Merchant Venturers' sc ...
in 2005 and the
University of Leeds in 2009. He researches South Asian religions, in particular
Hinduism and
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
, and their philosophies.
[ Als]
CV on Academia
Works
Burley has written over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles.
He has written and edited several books, of which the most often cited is ''Classical Samkhya and Yoga'' (
Samkhya
''Samkhya'' or ''Sankya'' (; Sanskrit सांख्य), IAST: ') is a dualistic school of Indian philosophy. It views reality as composed of two independent principles, '' puruṣa'' ('consciousness' or spirit); and ''prakṛti'', (natu ...
being the dualistic Indian philosophy behind
Patanjali's ''
Yoga Sutras
The ''Yoga Sutras of Patañjali'' is a collection of Sanskrit sutras (aphorisms) on the theory and practice of yoga – 195 sutras (according to Vyāsa and Krishnamacharya) and 196 sutras (according to others, including BKS Iyengar). The ' ...
''), which has been cited over 130 times, followed by his book on
Hatha yoga
Haṭha yoga is a branch of yoga which uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel the vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ ''haṭha'' literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques. Some haṭha ...
which has been cited over 60 times.
; As author
* 2000: ''Hatha-Yoga: Its Context, Theory and Practice'' (Delhi:
Motilal Banarsidass). German edition 2005, Romanian edition 2015.
* 2007: ''Classical Samkhya and Yoga: An Indian Metaphysics of Experience'' (London:
Routledge).
* 2012: ''Contemplating Religious Forms of Life: Wittgenstein and D. Z. Phillips'' (New York:
Continuum).
* 2016: ''Rebirth and the Stream of Life: A Philosophical Study of Reincarnation, Karma and Ethics'' (New York:
Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions.
Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mu ...
).
* 2020: ''A Radical Pluralist Philosophy of Religion: Cross-Cultural, Multireligious, Interdisciplinary'' (London:
Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions.
Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mu ...
).
; As editor
* 2012: ''Language, Ethics and Animal Life: Wittgenstein and Beyond'', co-edited with Niklas Forsberg and Nora Hamalainen (London: Bloomsbury).
* 2018: ''Wittgenstein, Religion and Ethics: New Perspectives from Philosophy and Theology'' (London: Bloomsbury).
Reception
Finlay Malcolm, reviewing ''A Radical Pluralist Philosophy of Religion'', states that the book "unifies and extends" Burley's "valuable work on diversification in philosophy of religion". Malcolm welcomes Burley's work to diversify "the questions, methods, and phenomena under investigation" in the field. All the same, Malcolm writes, the philosophy of religion is culturally located, and there was good reason for it to start by focussing on Abrahamic religions, before rightly diversifying.
Lloyd Strickland, reviewing ''Rebirth and the Stream of Life'', writes that Burley "succeeds admirably" in analysing and elucidating the subject of rebirth, giving an overview of rebirth theories and showing how they "might be intelligible" despite philosophers' objections on grounds of individual identity and memory.
Simon Hewitt, welcoming Burley's edited collection ''Wittgenstein, Religion and Ethics'', notes that
Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is consider ...
, while "a towering figure" in the domain, has been a ''
persona non grata
In diplomacy, a ' (Latin: "person not welcome", plural: ') is a status applied by a host country to foreign diplomats to remove their protection of diplomatic immunity from arrest and other types of prosecution.
Diplomacy
Under Article 9 of the ...
'', possibly because of his "meditative" and seemingly obscure style, while
post-Quinean metaphysics in the United States has been opposed to him.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burley, Mikel
Living people
Yoga scholars
Alumni of the University of Leeds
Alumni of the University of Essex
Alumni of the University of Nottingham
Alumni of the University of Bristol
British scholars of Buddhism
21st-century British philosophers
British Indologists
Year of birth missing (living people)