Hi! I am Anand Jayprakash Vaidya, Professor of Business Ethics and the Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence at San Jose State University and Visiting Professor of Indian Philosophy of Mind and Knowledge at University of California, Los Angeles. On this site you can find information about me, a list of my recent and upcoming talks, and links to my publications. If you are a student in one of my courses, you can find information about your course under the courses tab. I can be contacted by email at:

[email protected]

OR 

[email protected]

OR

[email protected]
Curriculum Vitae:
Anand Jayprakash Vaidya
Personal History:
​The Story of One Male Asian American Philosopher in The Asian and Asian American Philosophers and Philosophies Newsletter of the American Philosophical Association
Public Philosophy
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Can Macines Have Emotions? in AI and Society
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Are Large Language Models Natural Born Bullshitters? in The Philosopher's Magazine

If a Robot is Conscious, Is it ok to Turn it Off? in The Conversation

 The Ethics of Suicide in The Philosopher’s Magazine

Terminal Illness and Transformative Experience in The Philosopher's Magazine

The Science Fiction and Philosophy Society: an Introduction in Sci-Phi Journal

Indian epistemology: part 1 in The APA blog

​Indian epistemology: part 2 in The APA blog

Indian epistemology: part 3 in The APA blog

Indian philosophy of mind: part 1 in The APA blog

Indian philosophy of mind: part 2 in The APA blog
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Indian critical thinking in The APA blog

Whose philosophy lost its way? part 1 in The APA blog

Whose philosophy lost its way? part 2 in The APA blog

Whose philosophy lost its way? part 3 in The APA blog

Public Interviews:
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Vedic Philosophy, Epistemology, and the Illusion of the Self on Theories of Everything Podcast

Indian Philosophy and the Science of Consciousness on the Mind-Body Solution Podcast
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The Morals of Artificial Intelligence on Irish Newstalks Moncrieff Show.

The Repetitions in Compositions in Syntalk, Bombay, India.
Recent Publications (see all publications under research and papers):
​Epistemology of Modality and Philosophical Methodology​: Cross-Cultural and Multi-Disciplinary Philosophy of Mind and Epistemology: Critical Thinking Education and Philosophy of Logic: ​Book Reviews and Critical Notices:
Recorded talksRecent lectures (non-recorded, see CV for full list of presentations)​
  • "Perception, Hallucination, and Knowledge in Nyāya and Analytic Philosophy" at University of Leeds, UK. November 2, 2023.
  • "Perception, Hallucination, and Knowledge in Nyāya and Analytic Philosophy" at Stirling University, UK. October 31, 2023. 
  • "Does the Pauli-Exclusion Principle Support Modalism or Essentialism?" at St. Andrews University, UK, October 30, 2023.
  • "Deepfakes and the Problem of Certification" at The University of Cologne, Germany, October 18, 2023.
  • "Argumentation and Certification" at World Congress of Logic,  Sinaia, Romania. September 3-8, 2023.
  • "Moral Grounding and Grading: An Intelligent Systems-Based Approach" at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. August 25-27, 2023.
  • "A Nyāya Response to the Problem of  Amodal Completion as a Threat to Relationalism about Perception" at European Society for Analytic Philosophy Conference, Vienna, Austria. August 20-26, 2023.
  • "Cross-Cultural Conceptual Engineering On Certification" at University of Warsaw, Poland. June 10-11, 2023.
  • "Moral Grounding and Grading: An Intelligent Systems Approach" at ​Pedagogical University of Krakow, Poland. June 3-4, 2023.
  • "Nyāya Perceptual Theory and the Problem of Amodal Illusions" at The Science of Consciousness Conference, Taormina, Sicily. May 25-31, 2023.
  • "The Moral Grounding Problem: An Engagement Between David Chalmers' Reality+ and Umasvati's Tattvārtha Sūtra" at University of Stockholm. May 21-23, 2023.
  • "On Certification" at Ghent University. May 17, 2023.
  • "Multi-Factor Causal Disjunctivism about Perception and the Problem of Illusion" at University of Antwerp. May 4, 2023.
  • "On Certification: A New Architecture for Contemporary Epistemology based on Nyāya Epistemology" at UC Irvine, California, USA, April 28. 
  • "Samkhya-Yoga and the Status of Artificial Minds in Nature" at Samkhya-Yoga Conference at University of San Francisco, California, USA, April 13-15, 2023.
  • "A Classical Indian Philosophical Engagement with David Chalmers' Reality+" at Siena College, New York, USA, March 9, 2023.
  • "The Epistemic Limit of Illusionism about Consciousness" at JNU, Delhi, India, Feb 1, 2023.
  • ”Can Contributions from Jaina Logic to Logical Theory Also Contribute to the Debate over Logical Pluralism? An Exploration with Some Suggestions” at BHU, Varanasi, India, Jan 17, 2023.
  • ”Can Machines Have Emotions?” at India International Center, Delhi, India, Jan 12-13, 2023. 
  • "Concepts of Consciousness in Advaita Vedānta and Analytic Philosophy of Mind" at Advaita Society Delhi University, Jan 10, 2023
  • ​“Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, Frankish, Goff, Strawson, Bradford, and Chalmers on Consciousness, Self, Reality, and Moral Standing” at Sree Shankaracharya Sanskrit University, Kalady, Kerala, India, January 3-9, 2023.
  • ”What is Wrong with Conferalism, Normativism, and Modalism About the Epistemology of Modality?” At University of Miami, December 2, 2022.\
  • ”Can Machines Have Emotions?” At University of Hawaii, November 4, 2022.
  • “Kripke’s Account of the Epistemology of Modality” at 50th Anniversary of “Naming and Necessity” at City University of New York, October 19, 2022.
  • ”Can Machines Have Emotions?” At Florida Atlantic University, October 12, 2022.
  • "Similarity: An independent category of reality, only knowable through an independent knowledge source" at Indian and Analytic Approaches to Similarity Workshop hosted by Malcolm Keating and Ben Blumson, August 4-5, 2022.
  • "Can Indian Logic Contribute to the Debate over Logical Pluralism? ​The Case of Jaina Logic" at University of Calicut, Kerala, India. July 21, 2022.
  • "Essence and Possibility: On the Role of Controlling Conceptions in the Acquisition of Modal Knowledge" at Central Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Chicago, Illinois, USA, February 22-26, 2022.
  • "Interrogating Varieties of Illusionism: Against Phenomenal, Structural, Foundational, Accuracy, and Fundamental Illusionism" at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, November 29-30, 2021.
  • "Rāmānuja's Qualified Non-Dualism and Analytic Panpsychism" at Sree Śaṅkacharya University, Kalady, Kerala, India, November 23, 2021. 
  • "Imaginability: From Mind to Morality" at University of Hawaii, Manoa, USA. October 29, 2021. 
  • "Resisting the Allure of Illusionism about Consciousness: Realism and Privacy" at William and Mary, Virginia, USA. October 1, 2021. 
  • "The Epistemic Argument Against Illusionism about the Self and Consciousness" at Sree Śaṅkacharya University, Kalady, Kerala, India. June 1, 2021.
  • "Controlling Conceptions and the Problem of Epistemic Modal Friction" at Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome, Italy. February 22, 2021.
  • "The Epistemology of Modality and the Problem of Modal Epistemic Friction" with M. Wallner at Seminar on Modality hosted by Crispin Wright and Paul Horwich, New York University. March 31, 2020.
  • "What Does a Modal Normativist Know about Metaphysical Modality?" with A. Mallozzi at Workshop on Modal Knowledge hosted by Michael Wallner, University of Graz, Austria. March 13, 2020. 
  • "Perceptual Knowledge in Timothy Williamson and Jay Shaw & Stephen Phillips on Nyāya" at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture hosted by Jay Shaw, Gol Park, Kolkata. January 6-8, 2020.
  • "Disjunctivism and Knowledge-First in Timothy Williamson and Jay Shaw & Stephen Phillips on Nyāya" at Indian Epistemology Conference hosted by Jennifer Nagel and Ajay Rao, University of Toronto, Canada. November 8, 2019. 
  • "The Epistemic Argument Against Illusionism about the Self and Consciousness" at the Annual Conference of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy, Bath University; Bath, England. June 18-21, 2019.
  • "Which Illusion Should We Accept? -The Epistemic Argument Against Asymmetric and Dual Illusionism about the Self and Consciousness" at East Asian Contributions to Panpsychism hosted by Itay Shani, Sun Yat Sen University; Zhuhai, China. June 11-13, 2019.
  • "Towards an Attention-First Epistemology" at The Virtues of Attention Conference hosted by Jonardon Ganeri, New York University. April 24-26, 2019.