SYP
was founded in April 2023 by a group of philosophers from different latitudes,
languages, and philosophical traditions who have been gathering continuously
since 2016 at a variety of conferences to discuss topics on Indian
philosophies. We have all been touched by the Philosophy of yoga in one way or
another. To formalize our love for this philosophy, we created a Society that
could promote rigorous discussion, interpretation, dialogue, and debate about
yoga philosophy in relation to a variety of questions of philosophical
relevance in contemporary times.
The images on the website are paintings by Melissa Townsend.
They cannot be reproduced without permission.
Founders
Ana Laura Funes Maderey
Ana Laura Funes Maderey holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa where she specialized in East-West Comparative Philosophy, focusing on Indic and Yoga philosophies. She is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Fairfield University where she teaches courses on Asian Philosophies and her signature course on Yoga: Philosophy and Practice. Her research seeks to establish dialogues between phenomenology, feminism, and notions of bodily self-awareness in the Indian philosophical schools of Sāṃkhya, Yoga, Vedānta, and Hindu Tantra. She is currently writing a manuscript on the ethical dimension of prāṇa in the history of Indian philosophy and its implications for an intercultural philosophy of breathing.
Raquel Ferrández
Raquel Ferrández is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED, Spain) where she teaches Classical and Contemporary Indian Philosophy. So far she has published two books in Spanish: Sāṃkhya y yoga. Una lectura contemporánea [Sāṃkhya and Yoga. A Contemporary Reading] (Barcelona, Kairós, 2020) and Trance y memoria en el budismo y el yoga [Trance and memory in Buddhism and Yoga] (Barcelona, Kairós, 2022). She is currently dedicated to the study of contemporary yoga from the perspective of political philosophy and philosophy of technology.
Anand Vaidya
San Jose State University,
San Francisco
Anand Vaidya is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Comparative Philosophy, and Visiting Professor of Philosophy at University of California, Los Angeles.
His research is in Indian and Analytic Epistemology and Philosophy of Mind focusing on the nature of knowledge and consciousness as well as the self and ways of knowing, such as perception, intuition, and inference.
He regularly organizes seminars and conferences in India for international scholars. His recent publications focus on Gangesha’s epistemology and Ramanuja’s theory of consciousness. He is also actively involved in bringing Indian Philosophy to bear on the Philosophy of AI. He is the current treasurer of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy (SACP)
Geoff Ashton
Geoff Ashton is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of San Francisco. He has authored numerous articles, book chapters, and essays on Asian philosophies, including on the philosophies of Sāṅkhya and Yoga. His current research explores philosophies of nature across Western and Indian traditions. He is the current vice-president of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy (SACP).
ADVISORY BOARD
Purushottama Bilimoria
Purushottama Bilimoria works in Indian & Cross-Cultural Philosophy, Critical Philosophies of Law and Religion. He is a Principal Fellow of University of Melbourne; Teaching faculty with San Francisco University. He is an Editor-in-Chief of Sophia (Journal of Philosophy & Traditions, Springer), and Sophia Series in Cross-cultural Philosophy & Cultures).
Melissa Townsend
Melissa Townsend is an independent scholar, artist, writer, teacher, and yoga practitioner. A student of Sanskrit and Yoga Philosophy, she has translated, painted, and authored The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali – A Visual Meditation. Book One, Samādhi Pādah; Book Two, Sādhana Pādah; and Book Three, Vibhūti Pādah. She had completed the paintings for Book Four, Kaivalya Pādah, and is currently working on the translations and commentary for publication.
Agnieszka Rostalka
Agnieszka Rostalska is an FWO Senior Postdoctoral Researcher at the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy of Ghent University, specializing in Indian and cross-cultural philosophy. She is a member of the Managing Board of the Logic and Religion Association (LARA), and the Steering Committee of the Global-Critical Philosophy of Religion Unit at the American Academy of Religion. Currently, she is pursuing a project about the Arthaśāstra, which aims to bring it to philosophy as an example of early Indian socio-political philosophy parallel to Plato’s Republic.
Marzenna Jakubczak
Jagiellonian University (Krakow, Poland)
Marzenna Jakubczak is Professor of philosophy, specialising in Indian philosophy, philosophy of mind, philosophy of culture, cross-cultural aesthetics and gender studies.
Ricardo Silvestre
Ricardo Sousa Silvestre holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Montreal (Canada). He is currently Professor at the Federal University of Campina Grande and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (both in Brazil). He is also the leader of the project "Concepts of God and the Variety of Theisms in Indian Traditions: Towards a Theistic Theory of Consciousness", funded by the John Templeton Foundation.
Zoë Slatoff
Zoë Slatoff has a Ph.D. in Religion and Philosophy from Lancaster University in the U.K. and an M.A. and B.A. in Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University. She is the Clinical Professor of Sanskrit at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where she teaches Sanskrit and Yoga Philosophy courses in the Yoga Studies M.A. program, as well as undergraduate courses through the Theology department. Her Ph.D. dissertation—which she is working on turning into a book—was an exploration of the intersection of Yoga and Advaita over time, centering around a translation of the Aparokṣānubhūti, a text attributed to Śaṅkarācārya, though probably written closer to the early sixteenth century, and its commentaries. Dr. Slatoff is also the author of Yogāvatāraṇaṃ: The Translation of Yoga, a Sanskrit textbook based on classic yoga texts, which integrates traditional and academic methods of learning, from which she teaches.
Christopher Jain Miller
Christopher Jain Miller, the co-founder and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Arihanta Institute, completed his PhD in the study of Religion at the University of California, Davis. He is a Visiting Researcher at the University of Zürich’s Asien-Orient-Institut and Visiting Professor at Claremont School of Theology. Christopher's primary fields of research interest are Yoga Studies and Jain Studies, and he is the author of Embodying Transnational Yoga: Eating, Singing, and Breathing in Transformation (Routledge 2024) and the co-editor of Engaged Jainism (SUNY 2025).
Aidan Lyon
Aidan Lyon is a philosopher at Leiden University and external member of the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy. His research is at the intersection of psychology and philosophy and focuses on wisdom, uncertainty, psychedelics, meditation, yoga, and artificial intelligence. His recent book, Psychedelic Experience: Revealing the Mind, published with Oxford University Press, explores the intersection of psychedelics, meditation, and other spiritual practices. Dr. Lyon also works as a risk-management consultant, specialising in decision contexts that involve extreme uncertainty and high stakes. He works with clients across a wide array of domains, including biosecurity analysis, geopolitical forecasting, environmental decision-making, institutional investing, and psychedelic therapy.