Jacob Parkinson

DPhil in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
St Anne's College
jacob.parkinson@st-annes.ox.ac.uk
jacob parkinson

Thesis Title

Manifesting Authority: Prasiddhi, Pramāṇa, and Aesthetic Reason in Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta

Supervisor

  • Professor Diwakar Acharya (Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies)
  • Professor Monima Chadha (Faculty of Philosophy)

Biography

Jacob Kyle Parkinson is a DPhil candidate in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and a member of St Anne's College. His doctoral research examines how epistemic authority is constituted in the Pratyabhijñā ("Recognition") school of Kashmir Śaivism. Focusing on Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta, he argues that these thinkers ground authority not in external refutation but in prasiddhi, the shared and largely untheorised background of what is "well established", articulated through a strategy of immanent completion (paryavasāna) and extended into contemplative cultivation (bhāvanā) and aesthetic experience (rasa). The project combines philological work, including the reconstruction of passages of Utpaladeva's Vivṛti, with some comparative engagement with Wilfred Sellars and Wittgenstein.

Alongside his doctoral work, Jacob is the Founding Director of Embodied Philosophy, an online platform he founded in 2015 for scholar-practitioner education in the contemplative traditions of South Asia. Through it he directs Sādhana School and Wisdom School, edits Tarka, a journal of philosophy and contemplative practice, and hosts the CHITHEADS podcast. He holds an MPhil in Classical Indian Religions from Oxford, an MSc in Political Theory from the London School of Economics and an MA in Philosophy from The New School for Social Research.

Educational Background

  • MPhil, Classical Indian Religions, University of Oxford (2023)
  • MA, Philosophy, The New School for Social Research (2014)
  • MSc, Political Theory, London School of Economics (2007)

Research interests

  • Kashmir Śaiva philosophy, especially the Pratyabhijñā of Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta
  • Indian epistemology (pramāṇa theory) across Nyāya, Mīmāṃsā and Buddhist traditions
  • Sanskrit aesthetic theory: rasa, pratibhā and camatkāra
  • Śaiva manuscript traditions and textual reconstruction
  • Contemplative practice and pedagogy; cross-cultural philosophy