Miri Albahari

I work on comparative philosophy, in particular Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta as it interfaces with the philosophy of mind, metaphysics and epistemology.  I am trying to build a metaphysical system called 'Perennial Idealism' that extrapolates from the Perennial Philosophy to explain how the world could be configured if it were in fact true. I interpret the Perennial Philosophy to convey the content of a recurring mystical insight: that our inherent nature is actually pure, unconditioned consciousness, identical to the ground of all being. This will sound to many like a rather crazy view but I actually think it is true. A recent attempt to bat away objections is forthcoming in Oxford Studies in the Philosophy of Mind Volume 4 and will shortly be posted on PhilPapers.

Conference Activity and Presentations

* July 2023 'Unlocking the Combination Problem in Panpsychism.' AAP conference, ACU.
* April 2022 'Panpsychism and the inner-outer gap problem', invited talk at Monash University (via Zoom). 

* September 2020 'Perennial Idealism: How can the world be grounded in universal consciousness, invited Plenary talk, Towards a Science of Consciousness, Tucson 
*October 2018 ‘Non-dual consciousness as Metaphysical Ground’, Department Colloquium, New York University, invited
*July 2018, 'Universal Consciousness as ground of all Being', AAP, Wellington, New Zealand
*June 2017, 'Perennial Idealism: ‘A proposed metaphysic to account for content of ‘Perennial’ awakening mystical experience’ given at Idealism & Mind-Body Problem workshop, NYU-Shanghai, invited 
*August 2016, 'Idealism and the Perennial Philosophy: How might the world be grounded in universal consciousness?' Adelaide University, Departmental Seminar, invited.
*July 2016, 'Is Cosmopsychism a Coherent Position?', AAP, Monash.
*May 2016, 'How might universal consciousness ground all being? A preliminary sketch'. ANU, Departmental Seminar, invited.
*February 2016, 'Bridging Analytic, Continental and Eastern approaches to philosophy: Can we coherently define a universal consciousness as the experienced ground of all being?, Wollongong University, Departmental Seminar, invited.
*July 2015, 'How Should we characterise Awakening in Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta?', Australasian Society for Comparative and Asian Philosophy, Monash University.
* March, 2015: ‘Investigating the Possibility of Nibbāna’, Wollongong University, Departmental Seminar, invited.
* March, 2015: ‘The (Illusion of) Self as Culturally Invariant from a Buddhist Perspective’, (Philosophy Meets Cultural Diversity, Centre for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, on-line, invited).
* February, 2015: ‘Awakening to the Possibility of Nibbāna, (University of Calgary, Departmental seminar).
* January, 2015: ‘What is Nibbāna? Investigating Its Possibility’, ( APA Central Division, St Louis, invited symposium).
* July 2014: 'Metaphysically Framing Huxley's 'Perennial Philosophy'', AAP, Canberra
*April 2014: 'Different Trees, Same Fruit: Awakened Sages on the Nature of Mind' at Towards a Science of Consciousness conference, Tucson, Arizona