Ionut Moise
Spalding-Teape Fellow Ionut Moise’s current research project focuses on metaphysics in Western and Indian scholasticism.
Ionut works on a project on the History of Philosophy pertaining to the reception and interpretation of the category ‘differentia’ in several philosophical traditions (Indian, Byzantine, and Latin scholastic, as well as Islamic and Syriac). Before Clare Hall, he taught Indian Philosophy, Reception History, Religious Studies, and Theology at the University of Exeter, where he holds a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. He has also taught Comparative Philosophy in relation to the Aarhus University-OCHS visiting student programme at Oxford. Ionut’s current research area interests are Indian and Classical Greek ontology, scholastic philosophy (Boethius, Duns Scotus), Continental Philosophy (Gilles Deleuze, Albert Camus), Comparative Metaphysics and Sanskrit philology.
Holding a doctorate in Indian Philosophy (Vaiśeṣika) from the University of Oxford (2012-2018) led to the publication of Ionut’s first monograph: Salvation in Indian Philosophy (Routledge 2019) which offers a comprehensive outline on ‘salvation’ (niḥśreyasa) in Vaiśeṣika system, as well as a succinct overview of comparable classical theories of salvation in related Indian philosophical systems. Prior to Oxford, Ionut studied Classics, patristics and religious studies in Bucharest, Strasbourg, and at Cambridge (IOCS).
While he esteems the importance and necessity of philology and textual criticism in philosophy, Ionut’s method is synchronic. More recently he has developed, in the vein of Wilhelm Halbfass (Indologist and philosopher), an innovative course on Comparative Philosophy which he sometimes teaches at OCHS, Oxford. This may represent the material of a forthcoming book.
Select publications
- Salvation in Indian Philosophy. Perfection and Simplicity for Vaiśeṣika. 2019. Routledge Hindu Studies Series
- Vaiśeṣikasūtra. A Translation (with Ganesh U. Thite) 2021. Routledge Hindu Studies Series
- Difference and Pluralism in Indian and Byzantine Metaphysics. Chapter in Eastern Orthodoxy and World Religions. Eds. Thomas Cattoi, Brandon Gallaher, and Paul Ladouceur. Brill, 2022.
- Realism and Non-Realism in Indian Philosophy. Chapter in The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2022.
- The interplay between ‘abhyudaya’ and ‘niḥśreyasa’ in Vaiśeṣika system. Journal of Hindu Studies, Oxford University Press, 2019
- The Static and the Dynamic in Vaiśeṣika’s Eschatology. Romanian Journal for Indian Studies. Cluj Centre for Indian Studies. 2/ 2018
- The ‘Demarcation Problem’ in Vedic and Classical Greek medicine in Contribution of Professor G. U. Thite to Indology, The Department of Sanskrit and Prakrit and Centre for Advanced Study in Sanskrit, Savitribai Phule Pune University, 2020
Select awards
- British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Exeter (2020-22; 2024)
- Spalding-Teape Fellowship, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge (2022-23)
- Infosys Fellowship, India (2020)
- Erasmus Scholarship, India (Experts4Asia) (2015-16)