Indrani Bhattacharjee

Biography

"Indrani has earned doctoral degrees in philosophy from two institutions: Jadavpur University in Kolkata, and University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research has been concerned with the philosophical bases of historically important perspectives in linguistic philosophy and epistemology. Her most recent work involved interpreting Wittgenstein's On Certainty along naturalistic and Pyrrhonian lines. Her engagement with the later philosophy of Wittgenstein is on account of its focus on the primacy of practice, and consequently, on the social in the understanding and description of linguistic and epistemic phenomena. The importance of this ""turn"" in the history of analytic philosophy is to be assessed in terms of its implications for our understanding of linguistic/epistemic agency, epistemic communities and processes of knowledge creation and transmission. In her current work, Indrani is attempting to make sense of these linkages in the light of contemporary epistemological discourse. Other significant projects include characterizing the philosophical (which is to say Vedantic) underpinnings of Tagore's humanism and universalism, and putting some of the naturalism in On Certainty to work in a constructive critique of feminist epistemologies. Indrani's prior teaching engagements include a stint as a lecturer at Ranaghat College, Nadia (WB), and visiting positions at Tufts University and Bridgewater State University. She also taught throughout her career as a graduate student at UMass. Her academic qualifications are Doctorates in philosophy from Jadavpur University and University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her teaching areas includes Indrani's teaching interests include Classical and Contemporary Epistemology, Later Wittgenstein, Early Analytic Philosophy, Philosophy of Education, History of Feminist Philosophy and Indian Philosophy since the Bengal Renaissance. Indrani is working on two research papers, one focused on characterizing Wittgenstein's epistemological naturalism, and another involving analysis and assessment of Tagore's humanism."

Research Interest

Epistemology, Feminist Thought, Indian Philosophy