Journal Article

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​“Cézanne’s ‘Sensation’ and Husserl’s Eidetic Intuition – From the Perspective of Jonathan Crary’s Archaeology of Vision” (in Chinese), Journal of History and Philosophy of Art (Vol. 2), edited by Shen Yubing, 257-284. Shanghai: The Commercial Press.​​​​​

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I show that Edmund Husserl’s theory of Wesensschau (intuition of essences), like Cézanne’s paintings of still life in the 1880s, can be viewed as a rejection of the new model of vision that emphasizes the instability of seeing due to the participation of the observer’s body in the perceptual process. Thus, Husserl’s phenomenology illuminates how Cézanne’s sensation is a perceptual way of discerning and constructing universal forms.

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Under Review

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A paper on Sartre's discussion of human subjectivity.​

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Work in Progress

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“Choosing by Heart”​

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An agent confronts a hard choice when options are on a par, and she isn’t indifferent to the outcome. What should she do? I argue that an agent justifies making a hard choice only in the ongoing process of reaffirming her commitment by questioning whether the gut feeling upon which the commitment is based expresses what she really wants. This process confers a decisive reason to favor one option insofar as choosing so is authentic, understood in the sense of being sincere to how one feels.

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“Selfhood and Meaning in Life”

 

Meaning in life is usually explained by either subjective feelings of fulfillment or objective value. I show that the awareness and understanding of who I am relative to my factual situation is fundamental to meaning in life, and yet escapes from the current subjective-objective framework. What confers meaning isn’t the objective value of the projects nor the fitting positive feelings, but the personal connection between objects and the subject himself. To live meaningfully is to commit myself to actions in light of the awareness and understanding of myself so that I can identify and realize myself in taking those actions.

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A paper exploring how the self can be a source of motivation.

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​A paper discussing ​​identification and self-constitution.

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A paper on self-knowledge of desire in cases of hard choice.

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A paper reconstructing ​​Sartre's account of personal identity.

 

 

 

 

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