Kyoungmin (Kay) Cho is a Ph.D. student at UIC working on philosophy of action and ethics. He also has a strong interest in the history of philosophy, especially pertaining to Aristotle and Kant. His dissertation project is about the Aristotelian notion of activity or energeia, and its significance in moral philosophy.
What excites you about philosophy?
One reason why I am excited about philosophy is that it seems to me this field is full of people who truly enjoy doing philosophy. Interacting with them, either directly or through their works, is rewarding for me. Also, I often get a curious feeling that my mind is being elevated when I read or think something about philosophy. Although unfortunately this does not happen often, the few times that it does are enough to keep me motivated. Another thing I like about philosophy is that we can question almost anything. If we can create a good puzzle around an idea, you get to explore it rigorously, no matter how crazy the task seems at first glance.
What is the hardest part of doing philosophy?
I enjoy doing philosophy, but it doesn’t mean that I am pleased with every moment at which I am doing philosophy. Reading, thinking, and writing can often be painful to me, and sometimes it makes me a little doubt whether I truly enjoy philosophizing. Sitting at a desk and tackling difficult texts is not always an agreeable activity for me. I wonder if there are people who are pleased by such things all the time, and if so, I would like to register my envy.
What are you reading right now? Would you recommend it?
I recently read Warner Wick (1971)’s The Rat and the Squirrel, or The Rewards of Virtue. It was a happy accident that I found the paper because as far as I know, this paper is rarely cited. It is a short, insightful, and elegantly written paper. I would highly recommend it.
What common philosophical dilemma do you think has a clear answer?
I believe no common philosophical dilemma has a clear answer. If that were the case, it wouldn’t be a philosophical dilemma.
Who is your favorite philosopher and why?
I would say that my favorite philosopher is Immanuel Kant, but honestly, I am not sure why. Of course, I like his deep philosophical insights and serious but humble attitude toward philosophy. Rawls once said “All the great figures … lie to some degree beyond to us, no matter how hard we try to master their thought. With Kant this distance often seems to me somehow much greater”, and I am very sympathetic with this statement. But to be honest, I think I like Kant because my first serious philosophy course was about him and one of my favorite teachers in graduate school studied and taught Kant.
What is your favorite thing that you’ve written?
The favorite work of mine is On Aristotle’s Test for Energeia: A Generic Reading, which I presented at the 2019 Central APA. In the paper, I argued that both the so-called tense reading and aspect reading of Aristotle’s test for energeiaare problematic, because they only capture either the temporal structure or the teleological one about energeia, but not both. Thus I suggested an alternative reading, according to which the test is supposed to describe the manifestation or actualization of one’s general activity that can be captured by a tenseless statement.
What are you working on right now?
I am working on my dissertation, which is about the Aristotelian notion of activity. As far as I can see, Aristotle (and Kant as well) was pretty clear that there are two different kinds of action, production (poiesis) and activity (praxis), and that what we currently call moral philosophy should be concerned with activity rather than production. But it seems to me that contemporary ethical theories, including ones that are inspired by Aristotle (and Kant), focus almost exclusively on what Aristotle calls production. I am wondering why Aristotle (and Kant) thought that activity is the central topic of moral philosophy, and what will be the implication on contemporary ethics if we change our focus from production to activity.
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.
