Current PhD Students - Philosophy | Trinity College Dublin

Haktan Akcin

Research

My work is in the area of naturalized metaphysics, structural realism and metaphysical modality.

In my PhD thesis, I defend naturalized metaphysics against traditional alternatives as the latter lost contact with cutting-edge science. On the other hand, since the empirical results of science bear on how metaphysics should be conducted according to naturalized metaphysics, the immediate worry is the status of naturalized metaphysics when the scientific ontology it is constructed upon is jettisoned in future science.

Thus, I try to find out the best version of naturalized metaphysics for those taking the results of ontological discontinuity due to theory change in science seriously.

Supervisor | Alison Fernandes

Thesis Committee | Adina Preda, Paul O'Grady

Website | philpeople.org/profiles/haktan-akcin

Philip Browne

Research

My interests fall in the intersection between philosophy and theology. My research project is looking at the problem of God and abstract objects, with some help from Thomas Aquinas and other mediaeval thinkers.

Basically, the problem is that if God is the source of all that exists, what do we do with abstract objects such as numbers which seem to exist independent of God?

While most theists hold to some kind of realism regarding abstract objects, I hope to explore the nominalist tradition as a way of solving the problem, by denying that there are such things as abstract objects.

Supervisor | Paul O'Grady

Educational Background
I worked as an apprentice coachbuilder before completing an access programme to get into university. At undergraduate level I studied politics, philosophy, and economics for a year at Queen’s University Belfast before changing my degree pathway to study a BD in theology. I then completed my MPhil in philosophy at Trinity College Dublin, and I am currently a PhD candidate at the same institution.

Weihao Chen

Research

My primary research interests are in phenomenology and philosophy of mind, especially the intersection of them.

My thesis title is Encountering Others: A Phenomenological Approach.

It will be a study of the problem of other minds from the perspective of phenomenology, Husserlian phenomenology in particular.

Supervisor | Lilian Alweiss

Thesis Committee | Vasilis Politis, James Levine

Educational Background
MA in Philosophy | Peking University

Didi Dong

Research

My research project is titled 'Erōs (love) and Self-Formation: A Platonic Approach'. The project aims to investigate and develop our philosophical understanding of self-formation, and the key potential it has for our interpersonal relationship and communal well-being, through Plato’s treatment of the role or function of erōs (love) in regard to moral character-formation and human happiness.

Supervisor | Vasilis Politis

Thesis Committee | James Levine, Alison Fernandes

Educational Background
MA in Philosophy | Tsinghua University
Visiting Research Fellow | Stanford University | 2018 - 2019.

Jun Han

Research

My research focuses on Ancient Philosophy, specializing in the purification problem in Plato’s soul account. It surrounds Plato’s Phaedo, drawing attention to the tension between the metaphysical immortality of the soul and the ethical significance of its purification.

This research aims to provide an interpretation that dissolves this philosophical tension, by examining the soul’s purifiability which involves critical engagements with other dialogues, rather than merely critiquing Plato’s argument. I also attempt to disclose the contemporary relevance of this problem in one way or another.

Besides the current research, I distribute my interests in ethical issues in everyday life, especially the ones rooted in socio-tech causes. Furthermore, Philosophy of Technology is one of the two pillars that support me passing through the journey till date.

Supervisor | Vasilis Politis

Thesis Committee | Paul O’Grady, Lilian Alweiss

Educational Background
MA in Philosophy | University of Leeds
MPA | Fudan University
BS in Electronics | Fudan University

Darius Hockel

Research

My research interests are in the philosophy of religion and metaethics. I have interests in arguments for and against theism, and more generally the debate between naturalists and theists.

I also focus on Thomism in the contemporary philosophy of religion. Here, I am focused on the Thomistic conception of God and divine attributes.

In metaethics, I am interested in arguments surrounding anti-realism, especially error theory.

Supervisor | Paul O'Grady

Thesis Committee | Adina Preda, Lilian Alweiss

Educational Background
Master’s Degree | San Francisco State University

Francesco Piscitello

Research

My primary research interests are in phenomenology, existentialism and the philosophy of Kant.

The aim of my research is to study the nature and meaning of “forward-looking responsibility for structural injustice”. I will be focusing on what motivates an individual to take on this kind of responsibility, according to three perspectives which concur in shaping who we are: the "Self", the "Immediate Other", and the "Shared World".

I wish to show that this tripartite structure allows us to grasp fully the nature of forward-looking responsibility for structural injustice and what it means to take charge of it in our lives.

Supervisor | Lilian Alweiss

Thesis Committee | Adina Preda, Farbod Akhlaghi

Educational Background
MPhil in Philosophy | Trinity College Dublin |2022-2023

Enda Russell

Research

My primary research interests are in the philosophy of modality (necessity, possibility, contingency, the counterfactual conditional), and secondarily in general philosophy of science and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant.

My PhD thesis is entitled Quinean Appropriations of the Lewisian Modal Philosophy, which studies aspects of the philosophy of David Lewis (namely, the ontological theory of modal realism and the semantic theory of counterparts) from the point of view of the philosophy of W.V. Quine.

Specifically, I study the critique of quantified modal logic in Quine’s work and the resources available for accommodating that critique in Lewis’s philosophy.

Supervisor | John Divers

Thesis Committee | James Levine, Alison Fernandes

Educational Background
MPhil. Philosophy | Trinity College Dublin | 2022

Jack Ryan

Research

I am interested in the philosophical status of the Laws of Nature, specifically from an Essentialist interpretation of Plato.

The focus of my research is on a defence of such an interpretation as providing a basis for the Laws of Nature, particularly in the context of more recent realist perspectives, with specific reference to Armstrong`s theory of the Laws of Nature as relations between universals.

Supervisor | Vasilis Politis

Thesis Committee | Lilian Alweiss, John Divers

Educational Background
MPhil in Philosophy | Trinity College Dublin |2022-2023

Eduardo Torres

Research

My work is in the areas of the philosophy of language, metaphysics, and the history of analytic philosophy. In particular: reference, metasemantics, and metapragmatics; metametaphysics and social ontology; and Peter Strawson and the Ordinary Language Philosophy tradition, respectively.

I'm also interested in aesthetics, specifically, the ontology of music, the philosophy of literature, and the philosophy of horror.

My thesis is (tentatively) titled Against Revision: Reconsidering the Work and Legacy of Peter Strawson where I offer a critical re-appraisal of Strawson's philosophy and method regarding metaphysics and the philosophy of language in connection with more contemporary debates in these areas.

Supervisor | James Levine

Thesis Committee | Vasilis Politis, John Divers

Educational Background
MA in Philosophy | University of Tartu |2018-2020