Akeel Bilgrami (born 28 February 1950) is an Indian

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. He has been in the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University since 1985 after spending two years as an assistant professor at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

, Ann Arbor. Bilgrami is a

secularist Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion. It is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened ...

and an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

who advocates an understanding of the community-oriented dimension of religion. 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." He has been on the Humanities jury for the

Infosys Prize The Infosys Prize is an annual award granted to scientists, researchers, engineers and social scientists of Indian origin (not necessarily born in India) by the Infosys Science Foundation and ranks among the highest monetary awards for researc ...

from 2012, serving as Jury Chair from 2019.

Selected publications

* ''Belief and Meaning'' (Blackwell, 1992) * ''Self-Knowledge and Resentment'' (Harvard University Press, 2006) * ''Secularism, Identity, and Enchantment'' (Harvard University Press, 2014) * ''Nature and Value'' (Columbia University Press, 2019) * ''Politics and The Moral Psychology of Identity'' (Harvard University Press, forthcoming)

References

External links

*
Member Profile, Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bilgrami, Akeel 1950 births University of Chicago alumni Columbia University faculty University of Michigan staff University of Mumbai alumni Living people People from Bilgram Akeel Indian atheists Philosophers of mind Philosophers of language Moral psychologists 20th-century Indian philosophers 21st-century Indian philosophers University of Michigan faculty