DoctorSonam Thakchoe

Teaching

Buddhist philosophy: Madhyamaka, Yogacara, Sautrantika, Vaibhasika, Indo-Tibetan Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics, Philosophy of Mind, Chinese Philosophy: Philosophical Taoism, Philosophical Zen, Philosophical Confucianism

Teaching expertise

Sonam is currently involved in independently or collaborating with his colleagues in designing, teaching and coordinating the following units with a set of well-defined rationales and learning outcomes, which are coherently aligned to generic graduate attributes. He delivers these units with high quality teaching and learning materials to support and engage students in learning. His student-centered pedagogical approach emphasizes the need for incorporating learning and teaching strategies and technologies which engage, and support students in productive learning.

HPH105 Introductory Philosophy: Knowledge and Reality
HPH104 Introductory Philosophy: Moral & Political Philosophy
HPA234 Zen & Tao: East Asian Philosophy
HPA319 Buddhist Philosophy
HPH302 Applied Philosophy

Research Supervision

Sonam attracted many promising research students at UTAS specialising on Asian philosophical projects. He has had significant success in changing the research culture of the postgraduate community of Philosophy at UTAS into a much more cross-cultural, interdisciplinary and inclusive environment. Sonam has successfully supervised seven PhD theses. He welcomes expressions of interest from new MA or PhD students.

Topics that are ripe for a good PhD thesis and Sonam is most happy to work with are:

Madhyamaka: any topics on Madhyamaka philosophy: ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology
Yogācāra: topics on Buddhist Idealism and Phenomenology
Sautrāntika: topics on Buddhist Logic and Epistemology
Vaibhāṣika: topics on Buddhist cosmology, psychology and philosophy of mind
Mīmāṁsā / Nyāya: topics on Indian logic and epistemology
Vaiśeṣika: topics on Indian metaphysics
Taoism: topics on Philosophical Taoism
Zen: Topics on Philosophical Zen