Malcolm Keating

Malcolm Keating’s research focuses on questions about language, which he thinks about with philosophers from the premodern Indian subcontinent and the broadly Anglo-analytic tradition: What things can we talk about, and what things (if any) are beyond language’s grasp? What norms govern our use of language in argumentation? How does poetic and metaphorical language work? What can we learn through linguistic testimony?

His work with Sanskrit philosophers focuses on the traditions of Nyāya (“reasoning” or “logic”) and Mīmāṃsā (“hermeneutics” or “investigation”), as well as Alaṃkāra (“aesthetics” or “poetics”). He is the author of Language, Meaning and Use in Indian Philosophy: An Introduction to Mukula's Fundamentals of the Communicative Functions (2019, Bloomsbury), editor of Controversial Reasoning in Indian Philosophy: Major Texts and Arguments on Arthâpatti (2020, Bloomsbury), Reason in an Uncertain World: Nyāya Philosophers on Argumentation and Living Well (forthcoming 2024, Oxford University Press), and Classical Sanskrit for Everyone: A Guide for Absolute Beginners (forthcoming 2024, Hackett Publishing).

He teaches classes in philosophy of language, aesthetics, and Indian philosophy, often incorporating Chinese philosophy into his courses, too.