Akeel Bilgrami

Akeel Bilgrami is an Indian-born philosopher and the author of "Belief and Meaning", "Self-Knowledge and Resentment", and "Politics and the Moral Psychology of Identity", as well as various articles in Philosophy of Mind as well as in Political and Moral Psychology. Some of his articles in these latter subjects speak to issues of current politics in their relation to broader social and cultural issues. He has also increasingly joined debates in the pages of larger-circulation periodicals such as "The New York Review of Books" [ [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/4096 "The New York Review of Books"] ] and "The Nation". [ [http://www.thenation.com/doc/20011224/bilgrami "The Nation"] ] Bilgrami is currently the Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University in New York.

Bilgrami received a degree in English Literature from Bombay University before switching to philosophy. He attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, leaving with a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. He earned his Ph.D from the University of Chicago with a dissertation titled "Meaning as Invariance," on the subject of the indeterminacy of translation and issues concerning realism and linguistic meaning. He joined Columbia’s Philosophy Department in 1985 after spending two years as an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Bilgrami is a secularist and an atheist but, unlike many other atheists, including Oxford University scientist Richard Dawkins, whose 2006 book "The God Delusion" condemns religion in every aspect, he advocates an understanding of the community-oriented dimension of religion. [ [http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/feb/08inter.htm "Rediff India Abroad" Interview] ] For Bilgrami spiritual yearnings are not only understandable but also supremely human. He has argued in many essays that in our modern world, "religion is not primarily a matter of belief and doctrine but about the sense of community and shared values it provides in contexts where other forms of solidarity—such as a strong labor movement—are missing." [ [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/06/11/bilgrami061108.html "Columbia News"] ]

elected Publications

* "Belief and Meaning" (Blackwell, 1992)
* "Self-Knowledge and Resentment" (Harvard University Press, 2006)
* "Politics and The Moral Psychology of Identity" (Harvard University Press, 2007)

Notes

External links

* [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/philosophy/fac-bios/bilgrami/faculty.html Columbia University Faculty Page]