Christian Coseru

Professor

I work in philosophy of mind, phenomenology, and cross-cultural philosophy, with particular emphasis on Indian and Buddhist thought in dialogue with Western philosophy and the cognitive sciences. My research centers on consciousness, self-knowledge, perception, and the nature of subjectivity, including questions about embodiment, agency, and causation. I also draw on classical Greek philosophy, especially Platonic accounts of self-knowledge and Neoplatonic metaphysics, which remain a rich source of insight into these questions. More recently, my work has expanded to address philosophical questions raised by artificial intelligence, especially concerning the prospects for metacognition in increasingly sophisticated AI systems. I find that classical philosophical traditions offer unexpectedly fertile resources for thinking through these emerging problems, while challenging familiar assumptions about mind and cognition.

During the 2025–2026 academic year, I was Numata Visiting Professor in Buddhist Philosophy and Visiting Scholar in the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. In June 2026, I co-directed, with Alva Noë and Evan Thompson, the NEH Summer Institute Self-Knowledge for Humans and Artificial Systems at UC Berkeley. 

Education

• Ph.D. - Philosophy/Asian Studies, Australian National University
• Maîtrise ès philosophie - Philosophy, University of Bucharest
• Licence ès philosophie - Philosophy, University of Bucharest

Research Interests

• Areas of Specialization: Philosophy of Mind, Indian and Buddhist Philosophy
• Areas of Competence: Metaphysics, Phenomenology, Classical Greek Philosophy

Editor

• Springer Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures

Links

• The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (contributor)
• Philpapers (editor for Indian Philosophy)
• International Society for Buddhist Philosophy (president)

Honors and Awards

• NEH Summer Institute: Self-knowledge for Humans and Artificial Systems (with alva Noë and Evan Thompson), 2025-2027.
• NEH Summer Institute: Self-Knowledge in Eastern and Western Philosophies (with Jay Garfield and Evan Thompson), 2017-2019.
• NEH Summer Institute: Investigating Consciousness: Buddhist and Contemporary Philosophical Perspectives (with Jay Garfield and Evan Thompson), 2011-2013.
• Australian Research Council (ARC) Grant to develop an Interlingua-based proof-of-concept model for parsing Sanskrit, 2000-2001.

Publications

Books: Monographs

Perceiving Reality: Consciousness, Intentionality, and Cognition in Buddhist Philosophy, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).

Books: Edited Volumes

Subjectless Consciousness: Special Issue of the Journal of Consciousness Studies (Imprint Academic, 2024).

Reasons and Empty Persons: Mind, Metaphysics, and Morality: Essays in Honor of Mark Siderits (Springer, 2023).

Papers

2025

• “On Taking Appearances Seriously: Phenomenology, New Confucianism, and the Yogācāra Theory of Consciousness”, in Kai Marchal & Ellie Hua Wang, Subjectivity and Selfhood in Chinese Philosophy: Phenomenological, Comparative and Historical Perspectives. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press.

2024 

• "Can There Be Something It Is Like To Be No One”, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 31 (5-6): 62–103.
• "Is Subjectless Consciousness Possible?” Journal of Consciousness Studies 31 (5-6): 5–26.
• "Artificial Minds and the Dilemma of Personal Identity” Philosophy East and West 74 (2): 281–297.
• "Know Thy Knowing: On the Reflexive Form of Self-knowledge.” In Crossing the Stream, Leaving the Cave: Buddhist-Platonist Philosophical Inquiries, edited by A. Carpenter and P-J Harter, 167–196. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2023 

• "Reason’s Myriad Way: In Praise of Confluence Philosophy”, in Reasons and Empty Persons: Mind, Metaphysics, and Morality: Essay in Honor of Mark Siderits, edited by Christian Coseru, 1–15. Springer.

2022 

• "Consciousness, Physicalism, and the Problem of Mental Causation”, in Cross-Cultural Approaches to Consciousness, edited by Itay Shani and Susanne Kathrin Beiweis, 71–94. London: Bloomsbury.
• Can Global Antirealism withstand the Enactivist Challenge”, Analysis 82 (1):131-142.
• "Consciousness, Content, and Cognitive Attenuation: A Neurophenomenological Perspective”, in Routledge Handbook on the Philosophy of Meditation, edited by Rick Repetti, 354–367. London: Routledge.

2021 

• "The Middle Way to Reality: On Why I Am Not a Buddhist and Other Philosophical Curiosities,”, Sophia 60 (3).
• "Whose Consciousness: Reflexivity and the Problem of Self-Knowledge”, in Buddhist Philosophy of Consciousness: Tradition and Dialogue, edited by Mark Siderits, Ching Keng, and John Spackman, Leiden: Brill.
• "On Pursuing the Dialogue Between Buddhism and Science in Ways that Distort Neither”, in a symposium on Evan Thompson’s Why I am Not a Buddhist?, APA Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies Newsletter, edited by Minh Nguyen, Spring, 2021.

2020 

• "Consciousness and Causality: Dharmakīrti Against Physicalism”, in Reverberations of Dharmakīrti’s Philosophy: Proceedings of the Fifth International Dharmakīrti Conference Heidelberg, August 26 to 30, 2014, edited by Birgit Kellner, Patrick McAllister, Horst Lasic, and Sara McClintock. Wien: Verlag Der Österreichischen Akademie Der Wissenschaften.
• "Free Your Mind: Buddhism, Causality, and the Free Will Problem”, Zygon 55 (2): 1–13.
• "Reasons and Conscious Persons”, in Derek Parfit’s Reasons and Persons: An Introduction and Critical Inquiry. edited by Andrea Sauchelli, 160–186. London: Routledge.

2019 

• "Consciousness, Naturalism, and Human Flourishing", in B. Seok (ed.), Naturalism, Human Flourishing,
• and Asian Philosophy: Owen Flanagan and Beyond. New York: Routledge, 2019, pp. 113–130.
• "Presence of Mind: Consciousness and the Sense of Self", in Sen, M. (ed.), Problem of the Self: Consciousness, Subjectivity, and the Other, Delhi: Aakar Books, 2019, pp. 46–64.

2018 

• "More or Less Within My Power: Nature, Virtue, and the Modern Stoic,” Reason Papers 40 (2): 8–18. 2018.
• "On Engaging Buddhism Philosophically”, Sophia 57 (4): 1–11, 2018.
• "Consciousness and the Mind-Body Problem in Indian Philosophy," in R. Gennaro, ed. The Routledge Handbook of Consciousness, London: Routledge, 2018.
• "Interpretations or Interventions? Indian Philosophy in the Global Cosmopolis", in Purushottama Bilimoria, ed. Routledge History of Indian Philosophy, London: Routledge, 2018.

2017 

• "Soznanie, lichnaya identichnost' i debaty o "ya" /"ne-ya"," Voprosy Filosofii, Vol. 10 (2017): 130–140.
• "Are Reasons Causally Relevant for Action? Dharmakīrti and the Embodied Cognition Paradigm", in Steven Emmanuel, ed. Buddhist Philosophy: A Comparative Approach, Wiley-Blackwell, 2017, pp. 109-122.
• "Breaking Good: Moral Agency, Neuroethics, and the Spontaneity of Compassion", in Jake Davis, ed., A Mirror is for Reflection: Understanding Buddhist Ethics (New York, Oxford University Press, 2017).

2016 

• "Personal Identity and Cosmopolitan Philosophy", Philosophical Studies,DOI: 10.1007/s11098-016-0829-6, December 2016.
• "Freedom from Responsibility: Agent-Neutral Consequentialism and the Bodhisattva Ideal", in Rick Repetti, ed,. Buddhist Perspectives on Free Will: Agentless Agency? (London, Routledge 2016).
• "Consciousness and Causal Emergence: Śāntarakṣita Against Physicalism", in Jonardon Ganeri, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Indian Philosophy (Oxford University Press, published online June 2016).

2015 

• "Précis of Perceiving Reality," Journal of Consciousness Studies 22 (9-10): 9-24.
• "Perception, Causally Efficacious Particulars, and the Range of Phenomenal Consciousness," Journal of Consciousness Studies 22 (9-10): 55-82.
• "Taking the Intentionality of Perception Seriously: Why Phenomenology is Inescapable," Philosophy East and West 65 (3): 227-248.

2014 

• "Buddhism, Comparative Neurophilosophy, and Human Flourishing," Zygon 49 (1): 208-219.
• "Reason and Experience in Buddhist Epistemology," in Emmanuel, S., ed. A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.
• "Dignāga and Dharmakīrti on Perception and Self-Awareness," in Powers, J., ed. The Buddhist World, Routledge, 2013.
• "Mind in Indian Buddhist Philosophy," The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2009 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)
• "Naturalism and Intentionality: A Buddhist Epistemological Approach," Asian Philosophy, 19/3 (November 2009): 239-264.
• "Buddhist Foundationalism and the Phenomenology of Perception," Philosophy East and West, 59:4 (October 2009): 409-439.