Marcus Wang is pursuing his M.A. in Interdisciplinary Humanities (Philosophy Specialization) at Trinity Western University in Vancouver, Canada. Marcus comes from Beijing, China and his research focus is Chinese and Thomistic philosophy, centering on the topic of pursuing wisdom(哲): knowledge of the highest divine cause (道), as a way of life springing forth from both classical Chinese and Western philosophical traditions, whilst engaging with the contemporary epistemological and technological contexts. He has also enjoyed teaching philosophy as an academic tutor and supplemental instructor.
What excites you about philosophy?
For me, the most exciting feature of philosophy is that it can lead one to peace and flourishing. From a Daoist perspective, our sufferings originate from our striving to root our happiness in things that are finite or frail: as Laozi Zi points out (DaoDeJing, 12), the pleasure of the senses often leaves one overwhelmed, desperately pursuing more and anguishing at dissatisfaction. True satisfaction, however, lies within when one achieves stillness through seeing the Way from which all things emerge and return to (DaoDeJing, 16). Zhuang Zi argues that even the pursuit of knowledge can leave one dismayed because if one pursuits the nearly infinite amount of knowledge with one’s finite life, one can never study enough and is therefore left with discontentment and lassitude (Zhuang Zi, 3). The highest happiness is therefore not found in the pursuit of external things, since one tortures oneself with desire and discontentment in the very process of pursuing them; rather, it lies within one’s relation with the Transcendent (the Way) that frees us. These insights are echoed in the West by Aristotle, who argues that true happiness is absolutely final, self-sufficient, and comprehensive (Nicomachean Ethics 1097a- 1098b), and by Aquinas who points out, following Aristotle’s criteria, that no finite goodness, such as wealth, honor, glory, power, bodily or spiritual good, or pleasure, can be happiness and true happiness consists only in the vision of the divine uncaused cause as pure actuality (Summa Theologiae, I-II, Q3, A8). Therefore, to be united with the divine cause via a life of virtue, love and contemplation is, for me, the goal of Daoist and Thomistic philosophy and this is also the pursuit of wisdom from which philosophy (as the love of wisdom) was born and in which philosophers can still find their highest calling: “维天之命，於穆不已” (“The Great Mandate from Heaven, it is profound the everlasting.” -The Book of Odes).
What is your favorite thing that you’ve written?
It is perhaps a recent paper on wisdom and the philosophy of science. For me, one of the contemporary challenges to pursuing wisdom as a way of life is what Robert C. Koons calls microphysicalism, which claims that macro-level entities are ultimately reducible to their micro-level parts; as a result, human agency can be reduced to psychology, psychology to biology, biology to thermodynamics, thermodynamics to chemistry, and finally chemistry to atomic and particle physics. As such, there is little space for affirming genuine qualitative human experience, let alone the possibility of living in the pursuit of wisdom as classically understood. My paper, following the lead of Robert C. Koons, Edward Feser, Nancy Cartwright, etc., challenges microphysicalism via evidence discovered by the quantum revolution, such as the the mandatory usage of the Hamiltonian model, non-separable states, and the measurement problem, in order to argue that there are macro-level phenomena irreducible to their micro-level parts and that an Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy of nature is a more fitting frame when it comes to interpreting the findings of modern physics than microphysicalism, which presupposes a mechanistic world view that is perhaps no longer imaginable in light of the quantum revolution.
What are you most proud of in your professional life?
I have been teaching as a supplemental instructor at TWU since 2019, and this role involves conducting sessions that help first year philosophy students to review and comprehend class materials.
My conference presentation at the 2018 meeting of CSCA is entitled “Scientific Causality and Classical Theism” and it explores the relationship between different models of theism, including classical theism, pantheism, and deism, and different metaphysics, including Aristotelian-Thomistic metaphysics and mechanism, followed by a discussion on the topics of conservation, concurrency, and occasionalism.
What are you working on right now?
The long term project that I am working on right now is my M.A. thesis on the pursuit of wisdom as a way of life in the contemporary epistemological and technological contexts. My plan is to imagine Daoist, Confucian, and Thomistic philosophy in dialogue under the notion of wisdom, and defend wisdom as a way of life in the contemporary world by engaging with some of the challenges coming from modern and postmodern philosophies via resources from philosophy of science and semiotics.
I am also furthering my research in quantum physics, and as the British physicist Nigel Cundy points out, the new frontier of physics is quantum field theory, which makes use of creation and annihilation operators to explain quantum phenomena, such as the decay of electrons and photons resulting in the emission of new particles. Since there are no event-causes for such phenomena, Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy of nature becomes a promising candidate yet again in the interpenetration of the findings of physics with its notions of substance-causality.
What is your favorite book of all time? (Or top 3). Why? To whom would you recommend them?
My top 3 favorite books of all time are: 1. The Four Ages of Understanding by John Deely, 2. Scholastic Metaphysics by Edward Feser, and 3. Wisdom in the Face of Modernity: A Study in Thomistic Natural Theology by Thomas Joseph White.
The Four Ages of Understanding is, for me, the best in-depth survey of Western philosophy ever. John Deely was a renowned American philosopher who specialized in semiotics. One of his great contributions is to help us to think through the dominant philosophy of the modern age: idealism in its various forms as established by thinkers such as Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Kant, etc. Deely argues contra idealism that ideas are sign-vehicles (rather than self-representing objects) or species expressae formed by the intellect on the basis of species impressae; as such, ideas are part of a supersubjective relation that unites the knower and the things known, making possible the reality of knowing (rather than constructing).
Scholastic Metaphysics is a fantastic work by Edward Feser, who is a renowned Thomist and analytic philosopher. In this book, he provides a contemporary, systematic and clear introduction to Scholastic Metaphysics, and engages with its modern philosophical and scientific critiques with a trademark penetrating clarity. Perhaps this is the book that convinced me of Aristotle rather than Descartes 🙂
Wisdom in the Face of Modernity takes you on a profound journey in the pursuit of wisdom. Thomas Joseph White is a master of Thomistic philosophy as well as an expert at engaging with the thoughts of Kant and Heidegger. He shows, with admirable skill, that wisdom can still be attained in the face of modern metaphysical and epistemological difficulties.
I would recommend these books to potentially everyone since wisdom is for everyone.
This section of the APA Blog is designed to get to know our fellow philosophers a little better. We’re including profiles of APA members that spotlight what captures their interest not only inside the office, but also outside of it. We’d love for you to be a part of it, so please contact us via the interview nomination form here to nominate yourself or a friend.
Dr. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall is an editor at the Blog of the APA who currently teaches philosophy, religion, and education courses solely online for Montclair State University, Three Rivers Community College, and St. John’s University.
