John Taber

Emeritus
Regents' Professor

Photo: John Taber

Email: jataber@unm.edu
Hours: By appointment, contact at jataber@unm.edu
CV

  • B.A. (Kansas, '71)
  • Ph.D. (Hamburg, '83)

Bio:

I received my Ph.D. from Universität Hamburg, Germany, in 1983, (upon the publication of my dissertation with University Press of Hawaii) in Philosophy with Indology and General Linguistics as minor subjects. My supervisors (“gleich berechtigt”) were Profs. Reiner Wiehl (Philosophy, later of Universität Heidelberg) and Lambert Schmithausen (Indology). My first teaching appointment was in the Department of Religion, Case Western Reserve University. I joined the UNM Philosophy Department in 1987. I was Chair of the department from 2005 to 2009.

Research Interests:

The history of Indian philosophy, especially the Brahmanical and Buddhist traditions. My main interests on the Brahmanical side are Mīmāṃsā, especially the great seventh-century thinker Kumārila, and Advaita Vedānta. On the Buddhist side I have focused on the Yogācāra epistemological tradition (Vasubandhu, Dignāga, Dharmakīrti). I have also written on the history of Indian logic more generally. I work chiefly with Sanskrit sources but can consult texts in Tibetan and Pali as needed. Since 2015 I have been working with an international team of scholars on a translation of the first chapter of Dharmakīrti’s magnus opus, the Pramāṇavārttika. This project has been funded by two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (Scholarly Editions and Translations Division).

Teaching Interests:

At the undergraduate level: our surveys of Indian philosophy and Indian Buddhism, as well as Greek Philosophy, Epistemology, and Introduction to Philosophy. At the graduate level: I enjoy working with Pierre-Julien Harter and Emily McRae in mentoring our M.A. and Ph.D. students specializing in Indian philosophy through independent studies and tutorials. I offer a tutorial on reading Sanskrit philosophical texts most semesters.

Recent Publications:

Dharmakīrti’s Theory of Exclusion (apoha): Part I. On Concealing. An Annotated Translation of Pramāṇavārttikasvavṛtti 24,16—45,20 (Pramāṇavārttika 1.40-91). Vincent Eltschinger, John Taber, Michael Torsten Much, and Isabelle Ratié. Studia Philologica Buddhica 36. Tokyo: International Institute of Buddhist Studies, 2018.

“The Self and What Lies Beyond the Self: Remarks on Ganeri’s ‘Mental Time Travel and Attention,’” Australasian Philosophical Review 1/4, 395-405, 2018.

“Philosophical Reflections on the sahopalambhaniyama Argument,” in Reverberations of Dharmakīrti’s Philosophy. Proceedings of the Fifth International Dharmakīrti Conference, Heidelberg, August 26–30, 2014, ed. Birgit Kellner, Patrick McAllister, Horst Lasic, and Sara McClintock (Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2020).

Meaning and Non-existence: Kumārila’s Refutation of Dignāga’s Theory of Exclusion. The Apohavāda Chapter of Kumārila’s Ślokavārttika, Critical Edition and Annotated Translation. Kei Kataoka and John Taber. Beiträge zur Kultur- und Geistesgeschichte Asiens 102. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2021.

“Some Remarks on the Apparent Absence of a priori Reasoning in Indian Philosophy,” Journal of Indian Philosophy 50, 785-801, 2022.

“Apoha for Beginners,” Journal of Hindu Studies, Advance Access Publication 10 April 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/jhs/hiad014.

“Dharmakīrti,” in TheRoutledge Handbook of Indian Buddhist Philosophy, ed. William Edelglass, Sara McClintock, and Pierre-Julien Harter (London: Routledge, 2022).

“Dignāga and Kumārila on apoha and the Hierarchy of Concepts,” in Burlesque of the Philosophers. Indian and Buddhist Studies in Memory of Helmut Krasser, 2 Parts, ed. Vincent Eltschinger, Jowita Kramer, Parimal Patil, and Chizuko Yoshimizu, Hamburg Buddhist Studies 19 (Bochum/Freiburg: projektverlag, 2023).

“Dharmakīrti’s Attempt to Escape Universals,” in To the Heart of Truth. Felicitation Volume for Eli Franco on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday, 2 Parts, ed. Horoko Matsuoka, Shinya Moriyama, and Tyler Neill, Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 104.1-2 (Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universität Wien, 2023).

“Is Indian Epistemology Externalist?,” in The Vindication of the World. Essays Engaging with Stephen Phillips, ed. Matthew Dasti and Malcolm Keating (London: Routledge, 2024).

Other Information:

Prof. Taber has been a visiting professor several times at the University of Vienna and once at the University of Heidelberg. A felicitation volume honoring Prof. Taber’s research was published in 2021: A Road Less Traveled, ed. Vincent Eltschinger, Birgit Kellner, Ethan Mills, and Isabelle Ratié, Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 100. (Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universität Wien, 2021).

 

Teaching

As Emeritus Regents' Professor, Professor Taber has continued to teach one graduate-level course in Indian Philosophy per year. The courses he has taught most recently can be viewed in our Course Archive.

 

Current Projects

Dharmakīrti’s Theory of Exclusion (apoha): Part II. On Convention. An Annotated Translation of Pramāṇavārttikasvavṛtti 45,20–69,8 (Pramāṇavārttika 1.92-142). Vincent Eltschinger, John Taber, Michael Torsten Much, and Isabelle Ratié. Studia Philologica Buddhica, International Institute of Buddhist Studies (Tokyo), forthcoming 2025.

“Pramāṇa: India,” Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism, Vol. 3, Part 1 (Thought), ed. Vincent Eltschinger and Jonathan Silk, Brill, forthcoming 2025.