Academic & Teaching staff

Dr Mikel Burley

Lecturer in Religion and Philosophy


			Dr 			Mikel 			Burley

+44 (0)113 343 7504

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

Research Interests

  • Philosophy of Religion
  • Indian Religious and Philosophical Traditions
  • Philosophy and Film / Literature
  • Death, Illness and Emotion 
  • Wittgenstein

Teaching

  • Religion, Belief and Ethics
  • Hindu Traditions to 1600 C.E.
  • Buddhism

    Selected publications

    Books

    • Contemplating Religious Forms of Life: Wittgenstein and D. Z. Phillips (New York: Continuum, 2012). [Here]
    • Classical Samkhya and Yoga: An Indian Metaphysics of Experience (London: Routledge, 2007). [Here]
    • Hatha-Yoga: Its Context, Theory and Practice (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2000). German translation: Hatha Yoga: Einheit von Körper, Geist und Seele, trans. Elisabeth Liebl (Munich:Random House, 2005).

     Edited volume

    • Language, Ethics and Animal Life: Wittgenstein and Beyond, co-edited with Niklas Forsberg and Nora Hämäläinen (New York: Continuum, 2012). [Here]

    Journal articles

    • 'Atheism and the Gift of Death', Religious Studies (forthcoming).
    • 'Possibilities of Grieving', Philosophy and Literature (forthcoming).
    • 'Contemplating Evil', Nordic Wittgenstein Review 1 (forthcoming, 2012).
    • 'Reply to Howard Mounce', Philosophical Investigations 34 (2012).
    • 'Mounce and Winch on Understanding (or Not Understanding) an Indigenous Society', Philosophical Investigations 34 (2012).
    • 'Believing in Reincarnation', Philosophy 87 (2012): 261-79.
    • 'D. Z. Phillips' Contemplations on Religion and Literature', International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 71 (2012): 21-37.
    • 'God's Reality, Matters of Fact and D. Z. Phillips', Ars Disputandi 11 (2011): 101-17.
    • 'Emotion and Anecdote in Philosophical Argument: The Case of Havi Carel's Illness', Metaphilosophy 42 (2011): 33-48.
    • 'Winch and Wittgenstein on Moral Harm and Absolute Safety', International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 67 (2010): 81-94.
    • 'Is There a Tension in Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Religion?', The Heythrop Journal 51 (2010): 1000-1010.
    • 'Epicurus, Death, and the Wrongness of Killing', Inquiry 53 (2010): 68-86.
    • 'Immortality and Meaning: Reflections on the Makropulos Debate', Philosophy 84 (2009): 529-47.
    • 'Immortality and Boredom: A Response to Wisnewski', International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 65 (2009): 77-85.
    • 'The B-Theory of Time and the Fear of Death', Polish Journal of Philosophy 2 (2008): 21-38.
    • 'Phillips and Realists on Religious Beliefs and the Fruits Thereof', International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 64 (2008): 141-53.
    • 'Harry Silverstein's Four-Dimensionalism and the Purported Evil of Death', International Journal of Philosophical Studies 16 (2008): 559-68.
    • 'Should a B-Theoretic Atheist Fear Death?', Ratio 21 (2008): 260-72.
    • 'Phillips and Eternal Life: A Response to Haldane', Philosophical Investigations 31 (2008): 237-51.
    • '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 (2007): 327-41.
    • 'Beyond "Beyond A- and B-Time"', Philosophia 34 (2006): 411-16.
    • 'Anticipating Annihilation', Inquiry 49 (2006): 170-85.
    • 'Bradley and Schopenhauer, and the Epicurean Argument Concerning Death', Bradley Studies 10 (2004): 42-54.
    • '"Aloneness" and the Problem of Realism in Classical Samkhya and Yoga', Asian Philosophy 14 (2004): 223-38.

    Chapters in books

    • 'Wittgenstein, Wonder and Attention to Animals', in Niklas Forsberg, Mikel Burley, and Nora Hämäläinen (eds) Language, Ethics and Animal Life: Wittgenstein and Beyond (New York: Continuum, 2012).
    • 'Self, Consciousness and Liberation in Classical Samkhya', in C. Ram-Prasad and Jonardon Ganeri (eds) Self and No-Self: Hindu and Buddhist Ideas in Dialogue (Ashgate, forthcoming).
    • 'The Analysis of Experience in Classical Samkhya', in Jessica Frazier (ed.) Thinking Inside the Box: The Concept of a Category in Indian Philosophy (Ashgate, forthcoming).
    • 'Wittgenstein, Religion, and the Rejection of Metaphysics', in Hannes Nykänen, Ylva Gustafsson, and Camilla Kronqvist (eds) Wittgensteinian Approaches to Ethics and the Philosophy of Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, forthcoming).
    • 'Samkhya and Yoga', in Matthew Kapstein (ed.) The Columbia Guide to Indian Philosophy ( New York : Columbia University Press, forthcoming).
    • '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), pp. 184-203.

    Book reviews

    • Review of Christopher Bartley, An Introduction to Indian Philosophy, in Religions of South Asia (forthcoming).
    • Review of Julian C. Hughes, Thinking through Dementia, in British Wittgenstein Society Book Reviews, co-authored with Sue Richardson(November 2011). [Here]   
    • Review of The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis and Jerry Root, C. S. Lewis and the Problem of Evil, in Religious Studies 47 (2011): 532-37.
    • Review of Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir, in Religious Studies 47 (2011): 527-31.
    • Review of Karen Armstrong, The Case for God (unabridged audiobook), in Metapsychology Online Reviews 14, No. 24 (June 2010).Review of Stephen Phillips, Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy, in Metapsychology: Online Reviews 14 (2010).
    • Review of Christopher Hamilton, Middle Age, in the International Journal of Philosophical Studies 18 (2010): 136-40.
    • 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 (2009): 645-50.
    • Review of Knut A. Jacobsen, Kapila: Founder of Samkhya and Avatara of Visnu, in The Journal of Hindu Studies 2 (2009): 244-46.
    • Review of Gwen Griffith-Dickson, The Philosophy of Religion (SCM Core Text), in The British Journal of Religious Education 29 (2007): 189-91.
    • Review of H. M. Vroom, A Spectrum of Worldviews: An Introduction to Philosophy of Religion in a Pluralistic World, in Religious Studies 43 (2007): 111-16.
    • Review of S. N. Tandon, A Re-appraisal of Patañjali's Yoga-Sutras in the Light of the Buddha's Teaching, in Traditional Yoga Studies, online (2001).

    Academia.edu page: [Here