Background:
Szymon graduated with a PhD in philosophy from the School of Philosophy, Australian National University in July 2024. His education started in Ugorek (Kraków) during Polish political transformation of the 90’s. As a teenager, he backpacked around Asia and developed an interest in Indian and Chinese cultures. This interest led him to study philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University (2008-2013). After finishing his MA, feeling torn between Buddhist Studies and Philosophy, he eventually decided to pursue the latter. He lived, researched, and taught in Canberra, Australia for seven years before moving to Vienna, Austria in 2025. He is married to the sociologist Inga Koralewska.
Research:
Szymon believes that employing insights from Buddhist philosophy can help further philosophical questions we face today. His past research focused on logical paradoxes. He analysed what a Buddhist philosopher Dharmakīrti says about logic, contradictions, and knowledge to develop a novel and distinctive approach to the liar paradox. You can read more about Szymon’s research on this topic in this blog post.
His current main research project focuses on ideal Buddhist epistemology and examines what it means that we should not have any belief or conceptual thought, as some Buddhist philosophers seem to argue. He has some side research projects in Bayesian epistemology, metaphysics of time, and philosophy of biology.
Teaching:
Szymon was lecturing and tutoring at the Jagiellonian University and the Australian National University in Philosophy and Buddhist Studies programs. He conveyed and lectured ‘Logic and Critical Thinking’ (2024), ‘Buddhist Philosophy’ (2021) and ‘Buddhist Teaching about Mind’ (2015) courses. He tutored for ‘Rationality and Social Cooperation’ (2025), ‘Bioethics’ (2025), ‘Introduction to Philosophy’ (2024), ‘Philosophy of Mind’ (2022), ‘Buddhist Epistemology’ (2013-2015), and the ‘History of Mahāyāna Buddhism’ (2014), among other courses.
Awards:
Szymon’s work has been awarded 2019 Postgraduate Presentation First Prize by the Australasian Association of Philosophy (for a paper co-authored with Ross Pain); 2018 Australian National University Research Scholarship (International); 2016 Graduate Essay Contest First Prize by the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy; and 2013 Best MA Thesis on Eastern Philosophy Prize by Jagiellonian University.
Besides philosophy, Szymon likes football, hiking, and contemporary art.
Szymon Bogacz 
