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- The Institute of Philosophy - 24th Conference (January 9)
- We are pleased to announce that the 24th Conference of The Institute of Philosophy at Sungkyunkwan University will be held on Friday, January 9th, from 2:20 PM to 5:50 PM in Room 31604 (6th floor, Toegye Hall for Humanities). We cordially invite students and faculty members to attend. Date: Friday, January 9, 2026, 2:20 PM - 5:50 PM Venue: Sungkyunkwan University, Toegye Hall for Humanities, 6th Floor, Room 604 (#31604) Program: 2:20–2:30 Registration and Opening Remarks 2:30–3:30 Kyungnam Park (KAIST Digital Humanities and Computational Social Sciences; Ph.D., Loyola University Chicago) Kant's Doctrine of Right and Rawls's Political Liberalism 3:40–4:40 Wonjae Ha (Ph.D., Yonsei University) Meaning in Trouble 4:50–5:50 Chaeyoung Paek (Seoul National University; Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst) Autonomy as Ownership Kyungnam Park Title: Kant’s Doctrine of Right and Rawls’s Political Liberalism Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to criticize Krassnoff’s independence reading of Kant’s Doctrine of Right. Krassnoff defends the independence thesis that Kant’s political philosophy does not rely on Kant’s moral philosophy by deploying Rawls’s distinction between political liberalism and comprehensive liberalism. Krassnoff argues that Kant’s Doctrine of Right should be understood as a form of political liberalism in that the moral claims of the Doctrine of Right concern inherently political values rather than comprehensively moral values, which include non-political values as well as political values. In this paper, I argue that Krassnoff’s attempt to defend the independence thesis by characterizing Kant’s Doctrine of Right as political liberalism is not plausible for the following three interrelated reasons. First, there remains a conceptual conflict between the politically liberal aspects and the strong moral claims that Krassnoff ascribes to Kant’s Doctrine of Right. Second, relatedly, Kant’s Doctrine of Right should be characterized as containing comprehensively moral claims since its strong moral claims concerning the equal freedom of each citizen could not be accepted by citizens who support Hobbesian or other prudentialist theories of political justice. Third, I argue that the failure of Krassnoff’s strategy to defend the independence reading in terms of Rawls’s political liberalism is due in part to Krassnoff’s neglect of the tension between Rawls’s claim that political liberalism is independent of moral philosophy and the strong moral claims that Rawls’s political liberalism nevertheless requires by prioritizing public right over individual interests. Wonjae Ha Title: Meaning in Trouble Abstract: In this papaer, I argue that extension, as traditionally conceived, is not generalizable in the sense required for philosophically fundamental concepts. This yields a dilemma: either abandon the generalizability of the concept or give up the philosophical fundamentality of it. I propose a third route by combining Carnap's idea of extension with a Leibnizian notion of equivalence defined as the predicational equivalence. This proposal implies a view identifying extension with properties, which provides a uniform, generalizable notion of extension. Chaeyoung Paek Title: Autonomy as Ownership Abstract: The relational approach to autonomy holds that autonomy fundamentally depends on one’s social environment. I argue that existing relational accounts face a dilemma: they either set the bar too high, rendering autonomy unattainable, or define it in terms of a self-relationship so permissive that even manipulated or brainwashed actions may count as autonomous. To resolve this, I propose the ownership view of autonomy, which holds that autonomy depends on the degree to which one possesses and exercises ownership over one’s actions. On this view, social relationships shape ownership: when an agent is embedded in a relationship that normatively requires her to relinquish control over her actions, her autonomy is diminished. By tying autonomy to ownership, this account avoids the pitfalls of existing relational theories. If you have any questions regarding the event, please contact us at the information below. Research Director, Jeonggyu Lee / 02-760-0208 / jeonggyulee@skku.edu Research Assistant, Injin Woo / jaegoi53@gmail.com
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- 작성일 2026-01-01
- 조회수 258
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- [Alumni] Kim Jeonggyun, Byeon Yeongyeong, Lee Donggeon, and Lee Donghun Pass PhD Dissertation Examination(Fall Semester)
- Kim Jeonggyun, Byeon Yeongyeong, Lee Donggeon, and Lee Donghun have successfully completed their PhD dissertation defenses. The titles of their PhD dissertations are as follows: Kim Jeonggyun: A Critical Examination of Fictional Realism: Focusing on the Problem of Negative Existential Statements Byeon Yeongyeong: A Study for a Phenomenology of Taste–Food Experience: Issues of Sensation and Perception in Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception and Their Extensions Lee Donggeon: On Schopenhauer’s 'Better Cognition Leading to the Negation of the Will' Lee Donghun: A Critique of the Possibility of the Political Use of Artificial Intelligence: Focusing on Hannah Arendt’s Discussion The PhD degree is scheduled to be conferred in February 2026. Congratulations! *Only the photo of Kim Jeonggyun, who wished to have it posted, has been included.
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- 작성일 2025-12-31
- 조회수 251
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- Successful Completion of the 2025 Department of Philosophy Autumn Hiking Event
- The 2025 Department of Philosophy Autumn Hiking Event was held on November 8. This year’s hike to Mt. Bukak brought together Professors Emeriti Hangoo Lee and Jwayong Lee, Professors Byeong Deok Lee, Min Seol, Jeonggyu Lee, and Seong Soo Park, along with 10 graduate students and 12 undergraduate students. It was a meaningful occasion that fostered intergenerational exchange and camaraderie. Thanks to everyone’s warm interest and enthusiastic participation, the event concluded successfully.
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- 작성일 2025-11-12
- 조회수 274
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- Photo from the SKKU–Nagoya University Student Exchange Workshop
- The student exchange workshop, co-hosted by the Department of Philosophy at Sungkyunkwan University and the Departments of Philosophy and Informatics at Nagoya University, was held from November 1 to 3. https://sites.google.com/site/masashikasaki2/%E3%82%A4%E3%83%99%E3%83%B3%E3%83%88/philosophical-interchange-between-sungkyunkwan-and-nagoya-university?authuser=0 We would like to share some photos from the event below. Seong Soo Park: Gaslighting and Bullshit Min Cheol Seo: Proof, Computer and Mathematical Agent Gangwook Lyeo: From Text to Existence: The Circular Structure of Understanding Injin Woo: On the Reference of Social Groups under Reductive Materialism Jaehun Cho: From a Calculative Space toward the Meaningful Place: A Phenomenological Deconstruction of the Sungkyunkwan University Campus Donggeon Kim: What is Wrong with White Ignorance?: A Case against the ‘Environmental Model’ of Epistemic Normativity Masashi Kasaki: What is Epistemic Justification?
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- 작성일 2025-11-12
- 조회수 292
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- The Institute of Philosophy's Fall 2025 Invited Talk, Prof. Igal Kvart (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
- We are pleased to announce that Sungkyunkwan University's Institute of Philosophy will host the Fall 2025 Invited International Scholar's Talk on September 20th (Saturday) from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM. The event will take place in Room 31511 of Toegye Hall of Humanities. At this event, Prof. Igal Kvart from Hebrew University of Jerusalem will deliver a talk titled "A New Pragmatics, with Application to Assertion." We invite all faculty and students to attend and engage with this topic. Title: A New Pragmatics, with Application to Assertion Abstract: In this paper I present a new approach to Pragmatics and a new Pragmatic Theory, with applications to Assertion, Presuppositions and more. The new Pragmatics comes in a new Conceptual Framework. (Please find the full abstract at the bottom.) Bio: Prof. Igal Kvart is a Professor of Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with an affiliation to Rutgers University. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh with W. Sellars, on counterfactuals. His book A Theory of Counterfactuals (1984) was awarded the Johnsonian Prize by the Journal of Philosophy. He has also published extensively in prestigious journals on topics such as causation, reference, knowledge, pragmatic encroachment, and the new pragmatics. Date and Time: September 20, 2025, Saturday, from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM Location: Sungkyunkwan University, Toegye Hall of Humanities, 5th Floor, Room #31511 Schedule: 4:00~6:00 Igal Kvart (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) A New Pragmatics, with Application to Assertion If you have any questions regarding the event, please contact us at the information below. Research Director, Jeonggyu Lee / 02-760-0208 / jeonggyulee@skku.edu Research Assistant, Injin Woo / jaegoi53@gmail.com Full Abstract: In this paper I present a new approach to Pragmatics and a new Pragmatic Theory, with applications to Assertion, Presuppositions and more. The new Pragmatics comes in a new Conceptual Framework. The main concepts are: 1. Steering-Thrusts – any Verbal Act (spoken or written or thought) comes with a certain degree of 'steering' the hearer/audience towards adopting a certain content (conveyed by the speaker's Verbal Act). 2. Pragmatic Stances: Types of cognitive states hearers are steered towards. One among others is the Epistemic/informational Pragmatic Stance, with propositional contents – familiar in traditional Pragmatics (Grice, Stalnaker). But there are various others – attitudinal, attentive, Action-Directed, emotive, etc. Their contents need not be propositional. 3. A new set of Norms – comprising Conversational Etiquette. One among them is the familiar Sincerity Norm. It's generalized into the Broad Sincerity Norm. But Conversational Etiquette comprises also other types of norms, not considered in current Pragmatics. The proposed Pragmatics is not governed by Gricean Maxims of Rationality but rather by different special norms of Conversational Etiquette 4. A cognitive state of Posting -- having a certain Pragmatic Stance, which is NORM-CONFERRED by Conversational Etiquette, usually via Steering by a verbal act that makes it PUBLIC. For instance, in steering towards an Epistemic Position, the speaker THEREBY Posts having it. Applications: This set of concepts makes it possible to provide a new outlook on what Assertions are – they inherently invoke certain degrees of Steering-Thrust, NOT some epistemic position. So-called Presuppositions turn out to be mental acts of Posting-Without-Steering. (Epistemic) Pragmatic Encroachment, it would follow, DOESN'T EXIST – the underpinning phenomena are Verbal Acts conveying 2 distinct Steering Thrusts, where the Action-Directed Steering Thrust OVERWHELM the epistemic Steering Thrust (in view of strong normative pressures, such as in High Stakes): The phenomenon is PRAGMATIC, not semantic (as in, e.g., Epistemic Contextualism, or Shifty Epistemology). Misleading is a Pragmatic phenomenon – conveying implicit contents that the speaker Posts having but in fact doesn't. Pragmatic Inconsistencies, as in Moorean sentences, involve CONFLICTING STEERING THRUSTS, i.e., in opposite directions (vis-à-vis towards an action, an epistemic position, an attitude, etc.). Among many particular and general differences from traditional Pragmatics, note Grice's notion of implicature, which is inexorably interwoven with his set of Maxims (aiming at Rational Cooperation towards a Common Goal), which therefore needs to be replaced by the more neutral and general Implicit Content. The domain of application of STPP is much larger than that of the Gricean Pragmatics. The contents of implicit content need not be propositional (as in Grice and Stalnaker), due to the variety of Pragmatic Stances. So-called Presupposing is characterized precisely via the notions of Steering and Posting. In this talk I'll introduce the new Pragmatics, and give a taste (only, due to time constraints) of some of its applications, as mentioned above.
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- 작성일 2025-09-11
- 조회수 613
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- Hyeongseok Na (Ph.D. student) Selected for the NRF Doctoral Student Research Fellowship
- The Department of Philosophy is pleased to announce that Hyeongseok Na, a doctoral student, has been selected as a new awardee of the 2025 Humanities & Social Sciences Next-Generation Scholars Program (Doctoral Student Research Fellowship) funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF). His project, titled "A New Consideration of Consciousness Theories," will be supported by a research grant of 40 million KRW over a two-year period, from September 1, 2025, to August 31, 2027. Congratulations!
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- 작성일 2025-09-11
- 조회수 577
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- APPSA-LMPST Taiwan 2025 Participation Photos (Seong Soo Park, Mincheol Seo, Injun Seo, Injin Woo)
- APPSA-LMPST Taiwan 2025 (A joint conference of the Asia-Pacific Philosophy of Science Association (APPSA) and the Taiwan Association for Logic, Methodology, Philosophy of Science and Technology (LMPST Taiwan)) https://appsa2025taiwan.mystrikingly.com/ Please find below the photos from our participation in APPSA-LMPST Taiwan 2025. Seong Soo Park: Can AI Systems Be Considered Free Agents Mincheol Seo: Multi-Agent Belief Ascription Injun Seo: Against Chakravartty: Dispositional realism cannot unify entity realism and structural realism Injin Woo: Frenemies in the Same Boat: A Critical Assessment of Explanatory Voluntarism and Its Implications for the DRK view of Scientific Understanding
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- 작성일 2025-09-11
- 조회수 432
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- Philosophy Department’s 2025 Spring Hike Successfully Concluded
- The Philosophy Department’s 2025 Spring Hike took place on April 26. This year’s hike to Bugaksan brought together a wide range of participants, including Professors Emeritus Han-Gu Lee and Joa-Yong Lee, Professors Byoung Deok Lee, Min Seol, Jeonggyu Lee, and Seong Soo Park, along with 11 graduate students and 18 undergraduates. It was a meaningful occasion for intergenerational exchange and connection. Thanks to everyone’s enthusiastic participation and warm support, the event concluded successfully.
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- 작성일 2025-05-27
- 조회수 696
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- Injin Woo, Publication: "Beyond the Opposition of Empiricism and Rationalism" Korean Jouranl of Modern Philosophy
- Congratulations to Injin Woo on the publication of the paper titled "Beyond the Opposition of Empiricism and Rationalism: The Historical Significance of the Empirical Stance" in Korean Jouranl of Modern Philosophy! Link: https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART003199427
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- 작성일 2025-05-27
- 조회수 587
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