Biography
Evan Thompson is a Canadian-American philosopher and writer, and Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia. He received his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Toronto in 1990. His work connects philosophy of mind, phenomenology, cognitive science and Asian philosophical traditions to investigate consciousness, experience and the nature of the self.
With Francisco Varela and Eleanor Rosch, he published The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience (1991), a foundational work in the development of embodied cognition and the enactive approach. In Mind in Life (2007), he explored the relationships between biological organisation, experience and cognition in greater depth. Waking, Dreaming, Being (2015) examines the self and consciousness through dialogue between neuroscience, meditation and philosophy.
In Why I Am Not a Buddhist (2020), he critically examined certain contemporary interpretations of Buddhism and their relationship with science. His research advocates integrating the objective study of mind with a philosophically rigorous consideration of lived experience.
Profiles and references
Published books