About Us

Kumar Murty received his doctorate from Harvard University in 1982. With over 40 years of experience in mathematical sciences at the local, national, and global level, Professor Murty’s mathematical accomplishments cover diverse areas including analytic number theory, algebraic number theory, information security, and arithmetic algebraic geometry. He has served on the Canadian Mathematical Society Board of Directors and held vice-presidency at the Canadian Mathematical Society.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1995, Fields Institute Fellow in 2003, and Senior Fellow of Massey College in 2020. He received the Coxeter-James Prize in 1991 and the University of Toronto’s Inventor of the Year Award in 2011.

Professor Murty has over 120 published articles in leading scholarly journals and extensive involvement with external committees. His influence in mathematics operates in tandem with his passion for philanthropic and entrepreneurial endeavours. His recent work on Smart Villages is dedicated to bringing the technological revolution to rural communities in an attempt to bridge the digital divide around the globe.

Professor Murty has offered courses on Indian philosophy, in the world-philosophical format, which have been enthusiastically received by students at the Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto.

Michael Slote received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Harvard University. He is currently UST Professor of Ethics at the University of Miami. He taught at Columbia University, at Trinity College Dublin (where he was a Fellow), and at the University of Maryland, College Park, before coming to Miami in 2002.

He is the author of several books and many articles: most of these publications are in ethics, but in recent years his work has extended into epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind. Slote is a pioneering force in doing World Philosophy, as demonstrated in his book, The Philosophy of Yin and Yang, published in 2018.

Sitansu Sekhar Chakravarti did his Ph.D. from Syracuse University, NY, concentrating on the Philosophy of Language. He was formerly a Visiting Professor in Logic and modern western Analytical Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur; in Comparative Religion at the Department of Philosophy and Religion, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. He is currently Affiliated Scholar, New College, University of Toronto.

Dr. Chakravarti has published in The Journal of Indian Philosophy and the Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic. He has authored the books: Hinduism – A Way of Life (1991), Modality, Reference and Sense – An Essay in the Philosophy of Language (2001) and Ethics in the Mahabharata – A Philosophical Inquiry for Today (2006). Being well-versed in the western as well as the Indian philosophical traditions, he has combined them in his various writings.

Nancy E. Snow is professor of philosophy at the University of Kansas, USA. She received a Bachelor’s degree, as well as a Master’s in philosophy, from Marquette University, and obtained her Ph.D. at the University of Notre Dame in 1988.

Her work focuses primarily on virtue ethics as related to moral psychology. Before joining the University of Kansas, Professor Snow served as Director of the Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing at the University of Oklahoma, following up on her interest in the practical application of the concept of well-being in virtue ethics in the day-to-day living situation in life. This concentration led her to become a scholar with the project, ‘Virtue, Happiness, & the Meaning of Life’.

Snow has authored notable works such as Virtue as Social Intelligence: An Empirically Grounded Theory and edited The Oxford Handbook of Virtue. With Scott Beck, Ph.D., principal of Norman High School, Oklahoma, she has co-authored an article entitled, ‘Teaching Virtue’ on virtue education at school.

She engages with interdisciplinary perspectives, accommodating anthropology, literature, theology, and Eastern philosophical traditions such as Confucianism, bringing them into conversation with modern-day western philosophy.

Nirmalya Narayan Chakraborty holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Waterloo, Canada. He is currently the Vice-Chancellor of Presidency University in Kolkata, India. Previously, he served as Professor of Philosophy at Rabindra Bharati University, where he also held the position of Vice-Chancellor.

His academic interests include Philosophy of Language (Classical Indian and Western Analytical), Epistemology, Philosophy of Religion, and Environmental Ethics. He has also served as Member-Secretary of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, New Delhi.

Professor Chakraborty’s recent publications explore themes such as self-knowledge, realism and anti-realism, and Tagore’s idea of emancipation.

Amita Chatterjee is a philosopher of science and logician and is professor emerita at the School of Cognitive Science of Jadavpur University in Kolkata, India. She studied at Presidency College, Kolkata and was a professor of philosophy at Jadavpur University from 1979 to 2010, where she coordinated the Centre for Cognitive Science and was the Head of the Department.

She was the first Vice Chancellor of Presidency University, Kolkata, where she helped shape the institution into a prestigious university. She is a past editor of the Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research and has served as an editor for journals such as Philosophy East and West. She is well versed in various schools of Indian Philosophy, including Navya Nyaya and Vedanta, and is a member of the Calcutta Logic Circle.

Chienkuo Mi is Chair and Professor of philosophy at Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan, and President of Taiwan Philosophical Association. He has published widely in Chinese and English on topics in epistemology, philosophy of language, and Chinese philosophy. His recent research brings together issues in virtue epistemology and Chinese philosophy.

Neil Seeman is a Canadian author, educator, and entrepreneur who brings academic research into real-world practice. He is a Senior Fellow and Associate Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) at the University of Toronto, where he is also a Senior Fellow at Massey College.

Seeman’s work spans mental health advocacy, public health innovation, and philosophical inquiry. He draws on philosophical insights – particularly in ethics and philosophy of mind – to guide his wide-ranging pursuits. He founded RIWI Corp., a global technology firm that captures sentiment in real time, and co-founded Sutherland House Experts, a nonfiction publishing house focused on public thinkers.

His books, Accelerated Minds and XXL: Obesity and the Limits of Shame, explore behavioural science, mental health, and the ethics of care. His writing has appeared in Nature, The Globe and Mail, Nikkei Asia, and Healthcare Quarterly, among others.

His multidisciplinary work reflects ISWP’s mission to integrate philosophical insight with lived experience across global traditions.

Swami Tattwamayananda is currently the Minister of the Vedanta Society of Northern California, San Francisco, (originally founded by Swami Vivekananda in 1900). He underwent traditional training in Hindu scriptures, Sanskrit, Vedic and Vedantic literature for many years, from his early days.

He served in various centers of the Ramakrishna Order in India as editor, publisher, and teacher of Sanskrit, Advaitic texts such as Sri Shankaracharya’s commentaries on the ‘Prasthanatraya’ (the fundamental Sanskrit texts of Vedanta philosophy), Buddhism and Indian philosophy.

Before coming to the United States in January, 2012 he was teaching Sanskrit, Vedantic scriptures and Indian philosophy at the Training centre in Belur Math, the institution that trains the monks of the Ramakrishna Order at the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission, Kolkata, India. Apart from his traditional education the Swami has also received modern University education in English literature, psychology, European history and western philosophy.

He is frequently invited for lectures on Yoga, Vedanta, and traditional Hindu scriptures and for participating in interfaith dialogues.

Amitabha Dasgupta holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He served as Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hyderabad from 1980 to 2015, where he also chaired the Department of Philosophy for two terms and served as Dean of the School of Humanities.

Dr. Dasgupta’s research interests include Philosophy of Language, Epistemology, and the Philosophy of the Social Sciences. His international academic engagements include a Fulbright Fellowship at MIT and visiting positions at institutions such as Tilburg University, Boston University, and the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Paris.

He is the author of The Second Linguistic Turn: Chomsky and the Philosophy of Language and Meaning, Agency, and the Making of the Social World. His numerous articles have appeared in leading philosophical journals and anthologies.

Dennis Wittmer earned his Ph.D. in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, where he also completed an M.A. in Philosophy. His academic career spans over three decades, with a focus on business ethics, organizational theory, and public policy.

He retired as a Professor from the Daniels College of Business, University of Denver, where he taught courses on ethical leadership, corporate social responsibility, and the impact of advanced technologies on management.

Dr. Wittmer’s research interests include virtue ethics, ethical climates in organizations, and the pedagogical implications of AI on ethics and decision-making. His publications include journal articles, book chapters, and business case studies exploring ethical decision-making and practical wisdom in business and public administration.

Ananda Chakravarti did his undergraduate studies in political science, specializing in political theory, and mass communication at York University. He has worked in the business world for the last 20 years, primarily with two of the Big 4 public accounting firms. He is currently Director of ESG Assurance Markets with KPMG International in Toronto.

Chakravarti has a keen interest in the impact of capital markets on society. He combines perspectives from his business experience with the enduring need for philosophy, and virtue ethics in particular, to become better integrated with organizational leadership. He contributed an invited paper on virtue ethics in the contemporary business world at an International conference on Indian virtue ethics held at Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla, India.

Lisa Widdison researches and writes about intersections in philosophy of emotions, aesthetics and epistemology. She has studied philosophy and literature at the University of California at Los Angeles and internationally, including University College, Cork Ireland.

Lisa has devoted much of her graduate studies to readings in Sanskrit language, having earned her Doctorate in Comparative Philosophy with an emphasis on philosophies of India, from the University of Hawaii in 2021 under the guidance of her Chair, Vrinda Dalmiya and advisors, Arindam Chakrabarti, Joesph Tanke and George Tsai. For over a decade, Lisa has worked on projects in environmental aesthetics and biodiversity as well as philosophy for children.

She teaches an array of courses including environmental ethics, philosophy of law, logic, American philosophy, Greco-Roman philosophy, social-political philosophy, comparative world philosophies, Pacific-Asian and Hawaiian philosophy. She currently lectures at Hawaii Pacific University and the University of Hawaii, West Oahu.