Chris Cho is a Ph.D. candidate at Syracuse University from South Korea. He earned his B.A. in Philosophy and Cognitive Science from the University of Toronto. He is mainly interested in issues surrounding free will and moral responsibility.
Link to your website: chris-cho.com
What are you working on right now?
My dissertation! In my dissertation, I argue for hard-line structuralism. Essentially, I argue that manipulated agents (the kind you see a lot in the free will literature) can be responsible for what they do in virtue of satisfying certain structural conditions sufficient for responsibility. It isn’t a novel view, but it certainly hasn’t been the most popular view in response to manipulation arguments. My aim is to revitalize the structuralist project. Please reach out for a draft!
What do you like to do outside work?
Outside of work, I mostly spend my time doing two things. First, I’m really into CrossFit and working out in general. I’ve been doing it for a few years now, and although I am by no means good at it, I just love how physically challenging it is. It also keeps me sane, and is one of the few times of the day when I’m completely away from a screen or from thinking about philosophy.
Second, I’ve gotten back into reading non-philosophy books. Ever since I came to grad school, I avoided reading outside of philosophy because I already had to read so much for philosophy. But I think it’s important not to do that. Reading good novels has probably done more for my writing than almost anything else.
What are you reading right now? Would you recommend it?
I’m currently reading Katabasis by R.F. Kuang. To be frank, it was a random selection, but I highly recommend it. The book starts off with Alice, a graduate student studying magic, going to the depths of Hell to rescue her recently deceased advisor. It’s a fantasy story set against an academic backdrop, so I think anyone in academia—especially graduate students!—will get a real kick out of it. All of the familiar grad-school concerns—the job market, advisor dynamics, relationships with other students, and so on—show up ways that feel super relatable.
What would your childhood self say if someone told you that you would grow up to be a philosopher?
I probably would have said that person is crazy! Growing up, I wasn’t the studious type at all. I wasn’t close to books and definitely wasn’t the kid anyone deemed as a “future academic.” I was more interested in just hanging out with friends and doing whatever felt fun at the moment (I still am!). When I was young, philosophy wasn’t even on my radar. I don’t think I could’ve told you what a philosopher did. But life turned out in interesting ways for me. Somewhere along the way I stumbled into philosophy, got hooked by the questions, and here I am now. So if someone had told my childhood self that I’d end up in a Ph.D. program—in philosophy, of all things—I would’ve laughed.
What time of day are you most productive and creative?
Certainly the morning. I’ve set certain “non-negotiable” hours for myself from Monday to Saturday, during which I avoid scheduling anything so I can focus solely on work. For me, that’s from 7am to 11am. That’s when I feel the most focused and, I think, most creative. The reason? I’m not sure. Part of it is probably that my energy levels are best during those hours. But it also tends to be quieter then, which probably helps as well.
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