Mikel Burley is a scholar of religion and philosophy, known for his work on the Hindu and Buddhist traditions.

Biography

Burley gained his B.A. in 1993 from the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, it is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. The university comprises three camp ...

, his M.A. from the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

in 1997, and Ph.D.s from the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

in 2005 and the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

in 2009. He researches South Asian religions, in particular

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

and

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

, and their philosophies. Als
CV on Academia

Works

Burley has written over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles. He has written and edited several books, of which the most often cited is ''Classical Samkhya and Yoga'' (

Samkhya Samkhya or Sankhya (; ) is a dualistic orthodox school of Hindu philosophy. It views reality as composed of two independent principles, '' Puruṣa'' ('consciousness' or spirit) and '' Prakṛti'' (nature or matter, including the human mind a ...

being the dualistic Indian philosophy behind

Patanjali Patanjali (, , ; also called Gonardiya or Gonikaputra) was the name of one or more author(s), mystic(s) and philosopher(s) in ancient India. His name is recorded as an author and compiler of a number of Sanskrit works. The greatest of these a ...

's ''

Yoga Sutras The ''Yoga Sutras of Patañjali'' (IAST: Patañjali yoga-sūtra) is a compilation "from a variety of sources" of Sanskrit sutras (aphorisms) on the practice of yoga – 195 sutras (according to Vyasa, Vyāsa and Krishnamacharya) and 196 sut ...

''), which has been cited over 130 times, followed by his book on

Hatha yoga Hatha yoga (; Sanskrit हठयोग, International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''haṭhayoga'') is a branch of yoga that uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word ह� ...

which has been cited over 60 times. ; As author * 2000: ''Hatha-Yoga: Its Context, Theory and Practice'' (Delhi:

Motilal Banarsidass Motilal Banarsidass Publishing House (MLBD) is an Indian academic publishing house, founded in Delhi, India in 1903. It publishes and distributes serials, monographs, and scholarly publications on Asian religions, Buddhology, Indology, East ...

). German edition 2005, Romanian edition 2015. * 2007: ''Classical Samkhya and Yoga: An Indian Metaphysics of Experience'' (London:

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

). * 2012: ''Contemplating Religious Forms of Life: Wittgenstein and D. Z. Phillips'' (New York: Continuum). * 2016: ''Rebirth and the Stream of Life: A Philosophical Study of Reincarnation, Karma and Ethics'' (New York:

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural institution, cultural, intellectual, and educational ...

). * 2020: ''A Radical Pluralist Philosophy of Religion: Cross-Cultural, Multireligious, Interdisciplinary'' (London:

). ; As editor * 2012: ''Language, Ethics and Animal Life: Wittgenstein and Beyond'', co-edited with Niklas Forsberg and Nora Hamalainen (London: Bloomsbury). * 2018: ''Wittgenstein, Religion and Ethics: New Perspectives from Philosophy and Theology'' (London: Bloomsbury).

Reception

Finlay Malcolm, reviewing ''A Radical Pluralist Philosophy of Religion'', states that the book "unifies and extends" Burley's "valuable work on diversification in philosophy of religion". Malcolm welcomes Burley's work to diversify "the questions, methods, and phenomena under investigation" in the field. All the same, Malcolm writes, the philosophy of religion is culturally located, and there was good reason for it to start by focussing on Abrahamic religions, before rightly diversifying. Lloyd Strickland, reviewing ''Rebirth and the Stream of Life'', writes that Burley "succeeds admirably" in analysing and elucidating the subject of rebirth, giving an overview of rebirth theories and showing how they "might be intelligible" despite philosophers' objections on grounds of individual identity and memory. Simon Hewitt, welcoming Burley's edited collection ''Wittgenstein, Religion and Ethics'', notes that

Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...

, while "a towering figure" in the domain, has been a ''

persona non grata In diplomacy, a ' (PNG) is a foreign diplomat that is asked by the host country to be recalled to their home country. If the person is not recalled as requested, the host state may refuse to recognize the person concerned as a member of the diplo ...

'', possibly because of his "meditative" and seemingly obscure style, while post-Quinean metaphysics in the United States has been opposed to him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burley, Mikel Living people Yoga scholars Alumni of the University of Leeds Alumni of the University of Essex Alumni of the University of Nottingham Alumni of the University of Bristol British scholars of Buddhism 21st-century British philosophers British Indologists Year of birth missing (living people)