Nalini Bhushan is an American philosopher and the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

. Her work is on the

philosophy of chemistry The philosophy of chemistry considers the methodology and underlying assumptions of the science of chemistry. It is explored by philosophers, chemists, and philosopher-chemist teams. For much of its history, philosophy of science has been dominat ...

and

Indian philosophy Indian philosophy refers to philosophical traditions of the Indian subcontinent. A traditional Hindu classification divides āstika and nāstika schools of philosophy, depending on one of three alternate criteria: whether it believes the Veda ...

, among other subjects.

Lee C. McIntyre Lee Cameron McIntyre is a research fellow at the Boston University Center for Philosophy and History of Science, Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University and an Instructor in Ethics at Harvard Extension School. He has pu ...

described Bhushan's edited volume ''Of Minds and Molecules'' (2000), co-edited with her husband Stuart Rosenfeld, as an effort to provide a "synthesis" of the field to date. A review in ''

Philosophy of Science Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultim ...

'' stated that the essays collected in ''Of Minds and Molecules'' were "helping" philosophy of chemistry "to take its place in the world of ideas". Another reviewer noted, however, that a number of anthologies of papers in the field had previously been published, and thus that the book's claim to be the "first" such anthology was probably inaccurate. Her monograph ''Minds without Fear: Philosophy in the Indian Renaissance'' (2017), co-authored with

Jay L. Garfield Jay Lazar Garfield (born 13 November 1955) is an American professor of philosophy who specializes in Tibetan Buddhism. He also specializes on the philosophy of mind, cognitive science, epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of language, ethics, and ...

, argues that Indian intellectual life during the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

was vibrant—contrary to the assumptions of many scholars. ''Minds without Fear'' was the subject of several essays in a symposium in '' Sophia.''

Selected bibliography

* *

Notes

21st-century American philosophers Smith College faculty American women philosophers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century American philosophers 20th-century American women 21st-century American women {{US-philosopher-stub