John Spackman

John Spackman

John Spackman earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Yale University. He received a B.A. from Grinnell College, and also holds an M.A. in Religion from Columbia University, where he specialized in Buddhist philosophy and religion. His central interests in both research and teaching are in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and Buddhist philosophy. He is also a core faculty member in the Neuroscience Program at Middlebury.

Professor Spackman’s research focuses in particular on debates about the nonconceptuality of experience and the nature of concepts in both Western and Buddhist philosophy; on the nature and contents of consciousness; and on the metaphysics of the Buddhist doctrine of emptiness. He is the co-editor, with Mark Siderits and Ching Keng, of Buddhist Philosophy of Consciousness: Tradition and Dialogue (Brill, 2021), and his articles have appeared in such journals as Philosophical Studies, Philosophy East and West, and the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism.

In addition to teaching courses on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and Buddhist philosophy, he also regularly teaches courses on aesthetics and the philosophy of religion. (Source Accessed Mar 9, 2026)

Niṣprapañca - Freedom from conceptual elaborations. Skt निष्प्रपञ्च  Tib སྤྲོས་བྲལ་  

Go to the page with the definition of 'nonconceptuality'

Śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt शून्यता  Tib སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་  Ch 空 and 空門  

Go to the page with the definition of 'emptiness'