{{Short description|German professor of Buddhist Philosophy and orientalist}} '''Jan Christoph Westerhoff''' is a German philosopher and orientalist with specific interests in metaphysics and the philosophy of language. He is currently Professor of Buddhist Philosophy in the Faculty of Theology and Religion of the University of Oxford.<ref name="bio Faculty">{{cite web|title=Professor Jan Westerhoff|url=https://www.theology.ox.ac.uk/people/professor-jan-westerhoff|website=Faculty of Theology and Religion|publisher=University of Oxford|access-date=22 November 2017}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Westerhoff was educated at the Annette-von-Droste-Hülshoff Gymnasium, a Gymnasium in Düsseldorf, Germany.<ref name="CV">{{cite web|title=CV - J. Westerhoff|url=http://www.janwesterhoff.net/cv.htm|website=Jan Westerhoff|accessdate=22 November 2017|archive-date=17 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180417095406/http://www.janwesterhoff.net/cv.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> He studied philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating with a first class Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1999.<ref name="CV" /><ref name="bio LMH">{{cite web|title=Prof Jan Westerhoff|url=http://www.lmh.ox.ac.uk/our-academics/fellows/prof-jan-westerhoff|website=Lady Margaret Hall|publisher=University of Oxford|accessdate=22 November 2017}}</ref> He continued his studies of philosophy at Trinity and completed a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree in 2000.<ref name="CV" /><ref name="bio SOAS">{{cite web|title=Dr Jan Christoph Westerhoff|url=https://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff57929.php|website=SOAS University of London|accessdate=22 November 2017|archive-date=1 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201031854/https://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff57929.php|url-status=dead}}</ref> He undertook postgraduate research at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge; his doctoral supervisor was Michael Potter.<ref name="CV" /> He completed his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 2003, with a doctoral thesis titled "An inquiry into the notion of an ontological category".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Westerhoff|first1=Jan Christoph|title=An inquiry into the notion of an ontological category|url=http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.619905|website=E-Thesis Online Service|publisher=The British Library Board|accessdate=22 November 2017|date=2003}}</ref> He undertook research for a second doctorate, this time in Oriental studies, at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (SOAS).<ref name="bio LMH" /> He completed his second PhD in 2007 with a doctoral thesis titled "Nagarjuna's madhyamaka: A philosophical investigation".<ref>{{cite thesis|last1=Westerhoff|first1=Jan Christoph|title=Nagarjuna's madhyamaka: A philosophical investigation|url=http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.498483 |website=E-Thesis Online Service|publisher=The British Library Board|accessdate=22 November 2017|date=2003|doi=10.25501/SOAS.00029362 |type=phd }}</ref>
==Academic career== He was previously a research fellow in philosophy at the City University of New York, a seminar associate at Columbia University, a junior research fellow at Linacre College, a junior lecturer in the philosophy of mathematics at the University of Oxford, a university lecturer in religious ethics at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall and a research associate at SOAS.
===Research=== He is a specialist in metaphysics and Indo-Tibetan philosophy. In particular, his research focuses on the philosophy of the early Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker, Nāgārjuna, with comprehensive books such as ''Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka.'' His research interests also include the history of ideas in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His most recent research interests focus on the history of solipsism.<ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ_ERQ7ZlGs&ab_channel=TheInstituteofArtandIdeas|title=Is Reality an Illusion?|date=10 November 2019|language=|publisher=The Institute of Art and Ideas|trans-title=|location=|time=|access-date=|archive-url=|archive-date=|format=|id=|isbn=|oclc=|quote=|medium=Motion picture {{!}} Jan Westerhoff}}</ref>
==Selected works== ===Books=== *''The Non-Existence of the Real World.'' (Oxford University Press, 2020, 384 pp., {{ISBN|9780198847915}}) *''Crushing the Categories: Nagarjuna's Vaidalyaprakarana.'' (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018, {{ISBN|9781949163001}}) *''The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy.'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, {{ISBN|9780198732662}}) *''Reality: A Very Short Introduction.'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, {{ISBN|0199594414}}) *''The Dispeller of Disputes: Nagarjuna's Vigrahavyavartani.'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) *''Twelve Examples of Illusion.'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) *(co-authored with The Cowherds) ''Moonshadows: Conventional Truth in Buddhist Philosophy.'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010, {{ISBN|0199751439}}) *''Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka.'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009) *''Ontological Categories: Their Nature and Significance'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005)
===Journal papers (selection)=== * {{cite journal|doi=10.1007/s10781-008-9048-6|title=Nāgārjuna's Arguments on Motion Revisited|journal=Journal of Indian Philosophy|volume=36|issue=4|pages=455–479|year=2008|last1=Westerhoff|first1=Jan|s2cid=85551781}} * {{cite journal|doi=10.1080/09552360701201122|title=The Madhyamaka Concept of ''Svabh''āva: Ontological and Cognitive Aspects|journal=Asian Philosophy|volume=17|pages=17–45|year=2007|last1=Westerhoff|first1=Jan|s2cid=143804698}} * {{cite journal|doi=10.1007/s10781-005-6172-4|title=Nāgārjuna's Catuṣkoṭi|journal=Journal of Indian Philosophy|volume=34|issue=4|pages=367–395|year=2006|last1=Westerhoff|first1=J.|s2cid=169456015}} * {{cite journal|doi=10.5840/jphil20051021210|title=Logical Relations between Pictures|journal=Journal of Philosophy|volume=102|issue=12|pages=603–623|year=2005|last1=Westerhoff|first1=Jan|s2cid=119028160 }} * {{cite journal|doi=10.1080/713659902|title=The Construction of Ontological Categories|journal=Australasian Journal of Philosophy|volume=82|issue=4|pages=595–620|year=2004|last1=Westerhoff|first1=Jan|s2cid=170787660}} * {{cite journal|doi=10.1023/A:1022670409809|year=2003|last1=Westerhoff|first1=Jan|journal=Erkenntnis|volume=58|issue=3|pages=379–414|s2cid=118231467}} * {{cite journal|doi=10.1515/kant.2003.019|title=Ludwig Benedict Tredes Forgotten Necessary Grammar|journal=Kant-Studien|volume=94|issue=3|year=2003|last1=Westerhoff|first1=Jan}} * {{cite journal|doi=10.1111/1467-9264.00122|title=Defining 'Ontological Category'|journal=Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society|volume=102|issue=3|pages=287–293|year=2002|last1=Westerhoff|first1=Jan|url=https://philpapers.org/rec/WESDOC }} * {{cite journal|doi=10.1353/jhi.2001.0041|title=A World of Signs: Baroque Pansemioticism, the Polyhistor and the Early Modern Wunderkammer|journal=Journal of the History of Ideas|volume=62|issue=4|pages=633–650|year=2001|last1=Westerhoff|first1=Jan C.|s2cid=170210097}} * {{cite journal|doi=10.1353/jhi.1999.0031|title=Poeta Calculans: Harsdorffer, Leibniz, and the mathesis universalis|journal=Journal of the History of Ideas|volume=60|issue=3|pages=449–467|year=1999|last1=Westerhoff|first1=Jan C.|s2cid=170774562}}
===Talks=== *[http://www.cbs.columbia.edu/buddhist_ethics/panel-one.html/ Talk on naturalizing Buddhism, 2011] *[https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/madhyamaka-and-methodology/id411898147?mt=10 Talk at the Madhyamaka and Methodology Symposium, 2010]
== See also == * Similarities between Pyrrhonism and Buddhism
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.janwesterhoff.net/ Westerhoff's homepage]
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Westerhoff, Jan}} Category:Academics of Durham University Category:Fellows of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Category:German orientalists Category:Living people Category:German metaphysicians Category:German philosophers of language Category:Ontologists Category:21st-century German philosophers Category:German male non-fiction writers Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:German Indologists Category:Buddhist studies scholars Category:21st-century German male writers