Graduate Students

Ph.D.

Jonathan SIM

Email: jyhsim@nus.edu.sg

Teaching Areas: Computational Reasoning, Chinese Philosophy

AY 2020-21 Modules

Semester 1 – GET1050 Computational Reasoning
Semester 2 – GET1050 Computational Reasoning

Brief Introduction

Jonathan has a Master of Arts (Philosophy). He specialises in Classical Chinese philosophy and agent-based modelling. He has been researching ways of testing the effects of certain ethical concepts on a societal level through the use of computer simulations, modelling the behaviour and observing the effects of agents practicing certain ethical norms in the context of an artificial society. Jonathan has a special interest in crossing beyond disciplinary boundaries in the search for fascinating new insights to age-old problems. For his knowledge of philosophy across a spectrum of issues, he has been invited to discuss philosophical issues about technology and society in panel discussions for the Financial Times, Channel NewsAsia, and the Institute of Asian Consumer Insight. He recently edited a book on the Grand Challenges for Science in the 21st Century, (New Jersey: World Scientific, 2018) featuring insights from prominent Nobel laureates and academics from around the world. He is passionate about teaching and he enjoys sharing his love for philosophy. He has been teaching a variety of general education modules in NUS since 2016 to undergraduate students and adult learners from diverse backgrounds. At present, he is teaching computational methods in problem-solving and how to critically assess algorithms for biases and algorithmic injustices to undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

WU Mingqian (Freddie)

Email: freddiewu@u.nus.edu

Research Areas: Philosophy of mind

Md Shahidul ISLAM

Email: msi@u.nus.edu

Research Areas: Philosophy of Nagarjuna

Brief Introduction

Md Shahidul Islam received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in philosophy at Jahangirnagar University in Bangladesh. He also competed an MSc in Logic at the Institute for Logic, Language, and Computation at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He was teaching philosophy at Jahangirnagar University until he began his PhD at National University of Singapore in 2022. His current PhD research focuses on the use of paradoxes in Nagarjuna’s philosophy. His interests include Indian Philosophy, Nagarjuna, Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, the power and limits of logic, philosophy of religious language, and the philosophy of philosophy.

CHIA Zhi Heng

Email: e0032405@u.nus.edu

Research Areas: Metaphysics and philosophy of mind

Brief Introduction

I am currently a PhD student at NUS Philosophy. At a general level, I am interested in philosophical questions about the nature of reality, and the relationship between our epistemology, language and reality. This has led me to my research interests in the metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, philosophy of language, epistemology, metaethics, philosophy of logic and philosophy of mathematics.

Aldrin RELADOR

Email: aldrin.relador@u.nus.edu

Research Areas: Ethics, Desire satisfaction, Action theory, Value theory, Counterfactuals

YE Yizhou

Email: yizhouye@u.nus.edu

Research Areas: Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Cognitive Science

Brief Introduction

I am currently a PhD student in the Department of Philosophy at the National University of Singapore. I hold a bachelor's degree in Philosophy from Zhejiang Gongshang University and a master's degree in Philosophy from KU Leuven.

My research focuses on the nature and realization of intentionality and agency. I am especially interested in how these capacities are realized in natural agents, including human and non-human animals, as well as in artificial systems such as AI.

CHEN Yuang

Email: chenyuang@u.nus.edu

Research Areas: Metaphysics, Philosophy of Science

HIA Ren

Email: e1366930@u.nus.edu

Research Areas: Metaethics, Normative Ethics, Legal Philosophy

Brief Introduction

I'm Ren, a PhD student in the department, and my research interests are broadly situated in ethics, legal and political philosophy. My present project is in advancing an ontologically neutral account of moral realism, where I seek to provide a common starting position for moral realists of all (most?) stripes. I also do some research in the philosophy of private law, where I seek to determine if the domain of private law might yield theoretical resources that might help us better understand our normative relations even beyond the legal context. I am also interested in the philosophy of science and metaphysics more broadly.

If it matters, I was a professional soldier for quite some time before coming to grad school. I suspect that my military experience has some bearing on my philosophical interests but then again how could one be sure about the exact provenance of their interests?

Billy KOUTCHER

Email: billykoutcher@u.nus.edu

Research Areas: Nietzsche, feminist political and critical theory, comparative philosophy.

Brief Introduction

I am a PhD student in the Department of Philosophy at NUS. My main research project synthesizes poststructuralist (e.g., Gilles Deleuze) and political realist (e.g., Bernard Williams) strands of Nietzschean scholarship to establish a practical framework of immanent meaning creation.
More generally, my primary research areas are post-Kantian continental philosophy (especially Nietzsche), feminist political and critical theory, comparative philosophy, and enduring questions of meaning, order, and social identity. I also have a recent interest in metaphysics, particularly Parfit.

I hold an MA in Philosophy from King’s College London, an MSc in Political Theory from the London School of Economics, and a BA in Philosophy from American University in Washington, DC.

M.A.

HO Peng Han

Email: hopenghan@u.nus.edu

Research Areas: Philosophy of Art, Education, Epistemology

Brief Introduction

I am a M.A. student at the department of philosophy.

My B.A. thesis proposed and defended a new version of Hypothetical Intentionalism about literary work meaning. My M.A. thesis is currently on the epistemic aims of education with related issues about testimony in education. I am also currently working on the entanglement between logic and mathematics.

I have a specific fascination with meaning, reference, and truth in core analytic philosophy, and an interest in applying philosophy to solve societal problems by doing interdisciplinary work.

Jolly CHEONG

Email: jollycheong@u.nus.edu

Research Areas: The Nature and Value of Pleasure and Displeasure, Hedonic Naturalism, Normative Hedonism, Meta-ethics, Normative Ethics

Brief Introduction

Experiencing pleasure got me interested in its nature and value, and that got me interested in everything else.

Primarily, I’m working on the nature and value of pleasure. Apropos of pleasure’s nature, I’m working a phenomenological theory of pleasure, according to which pleasure just is felt goodness. Apropos of pleasure’s value, I’m working on arguing for hedonic naturalism, according to which pleasure just is moral value.

Secondarily, I’m interested in topics such as emotions, introspection, vividness, and death.

I’m currently working on two articles: one in which I defend phenomenological theories

Troph Intanon SOMBOONTANASARN

Email: e1374364@u.nus.edu

Research Areas: Post-Kantian Philosophy, Culture Studies, Literary Studies

Brief Introduction

My MA thesis is about the notion of givenness and noumena, especially with respect to Martin Heidegger and speculative materialism. I also draw heavily from German idealism (Schelling, Hegel), post-structuralism (Foucault, Lacan, Derrida), and cross-cultural philosophy (with Madhyamaka Buddhism). Otherwise, I am also interested in the intersection between phenomenology and social theory, cosmopolitanism, poetry (especially Georg Trakl), and the works of Georges Bataille.

FAN Sirui

Email: siruifan@u.nus.edu

Research Areas: Epistemology, Moral Philosophy

Brief Introduction

My research is in epistemology, with a focus on moral epistemology and testimony. My earlier work examined moral deference and moral testimony, while my current research explores the nature of testimony and its role in transmitting justification, knowledge and understanding. I am also interested in contemporary epistemic challenges, particularly the effects of large language models on our epistemic practices.

Samuel FOO

Email: e0389168@u.nus.edu

Research Areas: Ethics, Political Philosophy, Epistemology.

Brief Introduction

I am an MA student at the department, interested in normative questions in ethics, political philosophy and epistemology. I hold a BA (Hons) in Philosophy from the University of Cambridge. Currently, I am most interested in procreation and population ethics, the ethics of belief and knowledge, and trust in ethics and epistemology. I also have substantial interests in the philosophy of nationality and gender.

Mark TAN

Email: mark.tanjh@u.nus.edu

Research Areas: Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysics, and Epistemology.

Brief Introduction

I am an MA student in the department of Philosophy at NUS. I completed my BA (Honours) in Philosophy at Yale-NUS College in 2025, with a thesis on comparative metaphysics across the Thomistic and Mahayana Buddhist traditions.

My current MA thesis concerns conventional and more unorthodox frameworks for religious belief, and their feasibility. Related to this, I also work on problems in metaphysics and the challenges they pose for religion. Beyond that, I am interested in the analytic tradition more generally, especially in the nature of grounding, belief, knowledge, and explanation, with an eye to their roles in comparative philosophy.

CHUA Jie Hui

Email: c.jiehui@u.nus.edu