Short bio
Calahan Morse is a doctoral student at the University of Vienna working on Dharmakīrti's theory of perception under the supervision of Birgit Kellner. Within the framework of the Pramāṇavārttika's perception-chapter, his dissertation focuses primarily on Dharmakīrti's use of apparently contradictory philosophical perspectives, namely a Sautrāntika-like representationalism and a Yogācāra-like idealism, the arguments he makes for one position in favor of another, and the ways in which his commentators interpret these perspectival shifts. Broadly speaking, Morse is interested in the historical development of Buddhist theories of perception (realist, representationalist, and idealist alike) as well as the ways in which certain ideas found in more Buddhist-oriented sources are taken up by the authors of the Buddhist epistemological tradition, developed, and brought into philosophical discourse with a larger audience that includes non-Buddhists.