Main Research Areas at NTU:

Chinese Philosophy
Ethics (Moral Philosophy)
Philosophy of Science
Social Philosophy and Political Philosophy

The word "philosophy" comes from the Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophia), which literally means "love of wisdom." As a discipline, philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, mind, reason, knowledge, truth, beauty, values, and the meaning of life. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of inquiry by its critical, generally systematic, approach and its reliance on rational argument. While other fields study particular kinds of things, philosophy asks how it all fits together and aims at developing a systematic worldview.

Chinese Philosophy studies philosophical traditions with Chinese roots, such as Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, and Buddhism. These philosophies are concerned with fundamental issues related to human existence, such as virtue, freedom, reason, knowledge, love, harmony, and the good life. Investigations of these subjects are for both their historical and modern significance. In contemporary times, research in Chinese philosophy is often conducted in a comparative perspective with Western philosophy (“comparative philosophy”).

Ethics (Moral Philosophy) is the philosophical study of morality. Central questions in ethics include the following: What is morality? What considerations make an action morally right or wrong? What is a good life? Research in ethics spans three subfields: meta-ethics (the study of the meaning and justification of moral beliefs), moral psychology (the study of the psychological causes underlying moral thought and action), and normative ethics (the study of morally appropriate decision-making).

Philosophy of Science is concerned with the nature of scientific investigation and knowledge. It examines the foundations, assumptions, and methods of scientific practice as well as the consequences that scientific investigation has, or ought to have, for our beliefs about the world and our way of organizing society. Some of its areas of study include scientific explanation, scientific inference, confirmation of scientific theories, scientific realism and anti-realism, the distinction between science and non-science, the nature of observation, scientific reduction, causation, scientific laws, philosophy of physics, philosophy of biology, philosophy of cognitive science, philosophy of the social sciences, and science ethics.

Social Philosophy and Political Philosophy are closely related areas of philosophical inquiry. Social philosophy studies issues related to social justice. It asks question such as, What are the characteristics of a just society? What is social fairness? Is gender equality essential to a good society? Political philosophy focuses mainly on issues related to the role and legitimacy of government. Its topics include liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of legal code by authority.

Name	Research Interests
Asst Prof Andres Carlos Luco	My research interests fall mainly into meta-ethics, moral psychology, and social & political philosophy. I am interested in such topics as the rationality of moral action; the psychology of moral motivation; the evolution of morality; social norms; theories of well-being; distributive justice; and human rights.
Asst Prof Andrew T. Forcehimes	Metaethics Normative Ethics Political Philosophy
Prof Chan Kam Leung Alan	Chinese Philosophy and Religion; Hermeneutics and Critical Theory; Comparative Philosophy and Religion
Asst Prof Chang Yuan	Intellectual history, social thought, political philosophy.
Asst Prof Chiang Hui Ling Michelle	Modernism Theatre of the Absurd Beckett Studies Horror Studies Philosophy of Time and Mind
Asst Prof Christopher Holman	My current research interests are in the history of political thought (particularly early-modern and modern), contemporary political theory, critical theory, democratic theory, political anthropology, and psychoanalysis and politics.
Asst Prof Christopher Peter Trigg	The American Puritans The Radical Enlightenment Transcendentalism Political Theology Religion in American Literature
Asst Prof Chuang Christina	Ethics, History of Ethics, Moral Psychology, Indian Philosophy
Assoc Prof Chul Heo	Chul's scholarly interests focus on the study of production culture and aesthetics of film and television with a critical cultural studies approach. In particular, he is interested in critical and aesthetic implications of the look and sound of film and television, e.g. production design and sound design. To understand production culture of film and television, he pays attention to people who make creative decisions to deal with production conventions, creative rights, constraints and possibility in their institutional contexts, and the imagined audience in production process. Research areas - Aesthetics and Culture of Film and Television Production: Production Style and Code; Audience-making in Production; History of Presentation Techniques in Film and Television - Cultural Politics of Sound Design and Production Design: Sound and the Public Sphere; Occupational history of production designers - Digital technology and Filmmaking: The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Production - Asian Cinema and Television: Production Culture of South East Asian Cinema and Korean Cinema & Television - Documentary: History, Theory, and Aesthetics; Asian and Asian American Documentary Films Selected Creative Works Feature Films, Theatrical release in Korea nationwide. - The Return (2017, 96 min., 4K HD), Director/Writer. Narrative feature. (in Korean w/English-French subtitles), Commercial release on Dec. 7, 2017; Golden Zenith Award, the 41st Montreal World Film Festival; Ulju Mountain Film Festival; Jeonju International Film Festival; Asian Film Festival of Dallas. - Mira Story (2014/2015, 84 min., HD), Director/Writer/Producer. Documentary feature. (in Korean w/English subtitles), Commercial release on Jan. 15, 2015; Seoul Green Film Festival. - Ari Ari the Korean Cinema (2011/2012, 83 min., HDV), Director/Writer/Producer. Documentary feature. (in Korean w/English subtitles). Commercial release on Dec. 10, 2012; Busan International Film Festival, Seoul Independent Documentary Film Festival, Korean Film Festival in Bhutan; Paris Korean Film Festival Short Films - The Secret of Hanji Craft (2014/2015, 10 min., HD), Producer/Director. Short film. (in Korean w/English-French subtitles), New FIFMA programme at Empreintes, France, Sep. 12 - Dec. 31, 2017; Singuliers Objets, Plessis Robinson, France, Dec. 09 - 10, 2017; Festival de Metiers d'art, Deauville, France, July 14-17, 2017; Revelation International Fine Craft & Creation Biennial 2017, Paris, France, May 2017. - Kismet (2013, 30 min., HD), Producer/Director. (in Korean w/Turkish subtitles), Istanbul-Gyeongju World Culture Expo 2013, Istanbul, Turkey. August 31-September 22, 2013. - Constancy and Change in Korean Craft Arts (2013, 60 min., HD), Producer/Director. (in Korean w/English subtitles), Hidden Match ― An Exhibition of Korean Craft, National Museum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. November 24 - December 23, 2013; Taiwan International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo, Taipei, Taiwan. November 21-24, 2013; Milan Design Week, the Triennale Design Museum, Milano, Italy. April 9 - 14, 2013. - The Job (2006, SD). Producer. thirteen 30-min. episodes for TVK-24, Comcast cable in Southern California. (In English) - Between Two Worlds (1996/1998, 30 min., SD), Director/Writer/Producer. (In English), National broadcast on PBS in the United States, 1996. Distributed nationwide in America by UC Berkeley Center for Media and Independent Learning, 1998-2003; Rochester International Film Festival; Sinking Creek Film Festival; VideoScape Asian American Video Showcase; Busan Universiade for Digital Contents; Williams College; UC Davis Asian Pacific Film Fest; Korean American Film Festivals in San Francisco, Chicago, & NYC.
Assoc Prof Daniel Keith Jernigan	Modern and Contemporary British Literature; Modern and Postmodern Drama; Narrative Theory; Playwriting
Asst Prof Dimitris Apostolopoulos	European Philosophy Phenomenology Aesthetics Hermeneutics Philosophy of History
Assoc Prof Hallam Stevens	My research focuses on the intersection between information technology and biotechnology. My first book is an historical and ethnographic account of the changes wrought to biological practice and biological knowledge by the introduction of the computer. Especially in highly computerized fields such as genomics, the computer has changed how biologists work, how biologists collaborate, and how biologists make knowledge. I am currently pursuing two ongoing research projects. The first is an attempt to develop new methods of studying scientific practice by deploying tools from performance studies. In collaboration with a performance studies scholar, I am examining spaces of biomedical work in East Asia in an effort to deepen our understanding of how such spaces fit into the economic, social, and political context of the cities in which they sit. Sites under examination include Biopolis in Singapore and BGI in Shenzhen. The second project examines the emergence of "big data." This apparently new field is quite suddenly having an immense impact on politics, the economy, and many aspects of our social world. What is really new about big data? What kinds of changes may it bring? Who will benefit? Historians of technology, in particular, are well equipped to ask and answer such important questions about this emerging phenomenon. In addition to these projects, I have just completed a general audience book that examines that provides a broad overview of the social, political, and economic effects of biotechnology. The book will be published under the title "Biotechnology & Society" in 2016 (University of Chicago Press). I am interested in supervising PhD students on topics related to the history of the life sciences, the history of information technology, and science and technology studies.
Asst Prof Jennifer Ray Burris	The International in Curatorial Practice at a Time of Reactionary Nationalism Ecologies of Sound Art and Site-Specificity Feminism and Performance Histories of Land Art and Minimalist Sculpture Theories and Practices of Modernism along Equatorial Geographies Critical Practice and the Waste Stream: Artists and Social Scientists
Prof Li Chenyang	Chenyang Li's research interest is primarily in Chinese philosophy. He has published extensively in classical Confucianism. His work also covers feminist philosophy, democracy, and human value.
Asst Prof Marc Gloede	Marc's research interests include: - Development of Curatorial Practices - Curating time-based media - The relation of images, technology, space, and the body - The dynamics / interferences between fields such as art/architecture, art/film, and film/architecture - Expanded Cinema - Perception of color in film and art - The impact of digital dynamics on film and art practices - Re-thinking Abstraction
Dr Melvin Chen	Creative Cognition Research Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence Philosophy & Literature Ethics & Metaethics Aesthetics Philosophy of the Imagination Literary Modernism Buddhist Philosophy
Asst Prof Nanci Takeyama	Three main research interests: -Symbolic meaning of traditional forms in Asia -Preservation of Asian traditional arts and crafts, heritage management -Design for social innovation, design thinking, participatory design Areas of professional expertise: -Corporate Identity -Package Design -Typography, applied typography -Editorial Design -Information architecture -Environmental Design Important research key words: -Meaning of symbols in Asian traditions (crafts, rituals, myths) -Mandala -Cosmology
Asst Prof Nicholas Witkowski	Dr. Witkowski's current work is a multi-stage project that draws primarily on the Buddhist law codes (Vinaya) to demonstrate the centrality of ascetic precepts (dhūtaguṇas) to the Buddhist monastery of the middle period in Indian Buddhism. Dr. Witkowski has published articles on the lifestyle of monks within early Buddhist communities and has recently completed a monograph entitled, _The Quotidian Ascetic: Dhūtaguṇa Practices as a Pillar of Indian Buddhist Monasticism_.
Asst Prof Olav Benjamin Vassend	Philosophy of science Epistemology Decision theory Foundations of statistics
Prof Philippe Pirotte	-Contemporary Art -Curating and exhibition making, the memory of exhibitions - History of Art in South East Asia and more particular Indonesia -Cultural implications of the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung
Asst Prof Preston Huw Richards Greene	Ethics, Decision Theory
Asst Prof Qu Jingyi	Classical Chinese Literature & History from the Han through Tang periods; Chinese Literary Historiography in the United States; Western Sinology; History of Chinese Education in Relation to Cultural Heritage in Singapore
Prof Randy John La Polla	Sino-Tibetan Linguistics Linguistic Typology Historical linguistics (including Grammaticalization and Sino-Tibetan reconstruction) Functional Syntax (esp. Role & Reference Grammar and Systemic Functional Grammar) Pragmatics (particularly Relevance Theory) Anthropological Linguistics (Asian languages on which I have done fieldwork: Cambodian, Chinese dialects [Southern Fujian, Beijing subdialects, Shanghai, Guangzhou dialects], Dulong [1st Township, 3rd Township, 4th Township, Nujiang dialects], Qiang [Ronghong, Qugu dialects], Rawang [Mvtwang, Dvru dialects], Tagalog, Vietnamese.)
Asst Prof Richard Alan Barlow	James Joyce Modernism Scottish Literature and Philosophy Irish Studies
Asst Prof Sung Hiu Chuk Winnie	For the past few years my primary research project has been on Confucian thinker Xunzi's thought, focusing in particular on interpreting and working through the implications of Xunzi’s concept of xin (the heart/mind). I am also interested in moral psychology and issues related to self-knowledge and self-consciousness. Some smaller projects I am currently working on include hypocrisy, self-deception, loyalty, and epistemology of belief.
Assoc Prof Teru Miyake	My main field of research is Philosophy of Science.

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