B.A. Hons, NUS; Email: nicholas.cai-at-nus.edu.sg; Degree: MA
Nick’s primary areas of research are in the areas of Political Philosophy and the history of Political Philosophy. His honors thesis was a Rawlsian defense of Liberal Neutrality, focusing on the notion of Public Reason. His other research interests include Moral philosophy, German Idealism and Ancient Greek Philosophy, especially the connection between Politics, Religion, and Philosophy.
M.A. University of Barcelona, M.A. University of Parma; Email: a0109364-at-nus.edu.sg; Degree: PhD
Elena is a PhD student in the Join Program between NUS and King’s College London. Elena holds an M.A. in Analytic Philosophy from University of Barcelona UB (Spain) and an M.A. in Philosophy from University of Parma (Italy). As an undergraduate, she studied philosophy at the University of Parma and was a visiting student at the Radboud University in Nijmegen (Netherlands). Elena’s main area of research are Ethics and Political Philosophy. She also have a special interest in Relativism.
B.A. Hons, NUS; Email: weekian-at-nus.edu.sg; Degree: MA
Gary’s background is in European history, politics and philosophy, but he is interested in Chinese and/or Buddhist philosophy. He is thus hoping to marry the two in ethical inquiry. Specifically, he is in it in the long haul to provide an account of a way of living that is ethical and prudent but does not assume much about normativity or objective values.
B.A. Hons, NUS; Email: a0042325-at-nus.edu.sg; Degree: MA
About Himself: Kenneth is currently pursuing his MA at NUS, where he is receiving some pressure to be a dualist under the supervision of his supervisor. In his free time, Kenneth enjoys playing all sorts of games, which might help explain his interest in Philosophy. He also enjoys writing plays and listening to music.
M.A. SungKyunkwan University; Email: a0082362-at-nus.edu.sg; Degree: PhD 
About Herself: So Young holds an MA from Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea. Her study is mainly in early Confucian philosophy and she wrote my MA thesis on Confucius’ renxue in the Analects. Her current research interests in NUS are early Chinese philosophy, including Confucianism, Daoism, and thoughts of the other schools in the pre-Qin period. Also, she is interested in Comparative Philosophy and Ethics.
M.A. Kent State University; Email: a0082734-at-nus.edu.sg; Degree: PhD
I hold an MA from Kent State University, where my thesis focused on resonating themes in the Confucian and George Herbert Mead’s concepts of self. I hope to continue research in comparative philosophy looking at the intertwining nature of community and individual in different philosophical contexts. Additionally, I am interested in the methodology of comparative philosophy and the problems associated with distinguishing between eastern and western thought. More broadly, my interests include early Confucian thought, American Pragmatism, Twentieth Century Continental philosophy, and Plato.
LIM Chong-Ming. M.A., B.A. Hons (NUS); Website: http://cmlim.droppages.com/; Degree: M.A. (2013).
About Himself: My primary interests centre on political and legal philosophy, and ethics. In my recently-submitted M.A. dissertation, I defended a Rawlsian account of distributive justice from some criticisms, pertaining to mental disabilities, by disability theorists. I argued that while many of the criticisms may be easily responded to, they nevertheless point to some open questions that the Rawlsian account has yet to fully answer. Currently, I am examining the limits of justification within the contractarian framework – especially the Rawlsian Overlapping Consensus – and exploring if there may be more reasons for compromising on justice, than for the sake of justice itself. I have also recently developed an interest in issues of international justice and legitimacy.
I have tutored at the department (Philosophy of Law, and Introduction to Philosophy), and taught philosophy at various local secondary schools.
B.Sc. Hons, NUS; Email: a0030974-at-nus.edu.sg; Degree: MA
About Himself: My thesis is concerned with trying to find a more general justification for the Rawlsian framework. I am interested in broadly trying to derive and defend a free-standing theory of justice. At the same time I am interested in democracy and justifications for it. I am also interested in social epistemology and its implications for democracy.
M.A. University of Mumbai; Email: a0095415-at-nus.edu.sg; Degree: PhD
Mitradutta Mohapatra holds an MA from University of Mumbai and he is exposed to both Indian and Western philosophical traditions. He is keen to look at various aspects of moral philosophy and more particularly, his interest lies in ‘applied ethics’. His current research interest at NUS is to have a closer look at the evolution of compliance governance in the contemporary business world and examine its compatibility with the ethical theories and the traditional tenets of human morality.
Shaun Oon, one of our MA Students, attended a summer school in Tübingen this past summer. He wrote the following report of his experience. Tongue in cheek, of course.
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TERRIBLE TÜBINGEN
by Shaun Oon
You should never trust anything that you read on the internet. That has always been my general policy and is one that has rarely steered me wrong. Except that it was the reason why I was under three layers of winter clothing, standing at the Tübingen train station, in the Swabian summer sun. Who would have expected the German weather forecast site to get their prediction right? Under my coats and heavy backpack, the delightful Tübingen weather, which persistently refused to get worse throughout my stay there, was insufferable. The long, never-ending 800 metre walk to the youth hostel where I was to spend the week brought to my mind the cantos of Dante’s Inferno. On top of that, when I got to the hostel, I learnt that I was not provided a bath towel. Thankfully, as an avid fan of Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect, I had brought my own, but imagine if I had not done so and had to rent one from the hostel! You would imagine that the organisers of the Unseld Summer School, after flying me across two continents, paying for my lodging as well as some of my meals, would have been willing to pay for a towel rental, but there was obviously a limit to their generosity.