DPhil Student (Faculty of Philosophy)
College: Merton
Thesis topic: Pleasure in seventeenth-century French philosophy
Supervisor: Professor Roger Crisp
Main research interests: the history of moral philosophy and of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European philosophy; current moral, social and political philosophy and metaphysics.
My DPhil thesis will examine discussions of the nature and value of pleasure by Gassendi, Malebranche and related French or English philosophers. The aim is to give an account of the opinions and arguments concerning the nature and value of pleasure of some important but relatively neglected philosophers, including consideration, where relevant, of their interpretation of classical philosophy or of their disagreements with one another; to assess those arguments; and, if possible, to contribute to understanding why hedonism about the good or about happiness came to be a standard position in French and British philosophy in the subsequent period.
Background: Postgraduate in Philosophy, Corpus Christi College, Oxford, from 2020 to 2022 (Gilbert Ryle Prize for the best overall performance in the BPhil in Philosophy, 2022). Undergraduate in History and then in History and Politics, University College, Oxford, from 2017 to 2020 (Gibbs Prize proxime accessit award for the second highest average mark in History in joint Schools, 2020). Undergraduate, University of Sydney, in 2017.
Website (listing current research, publications and teaching offered): https://shengee.wordpress.com.