Research Interests

I am keenly interested in Sen and Nussbaum's Capability Approach and Robeyns' (Ethical) Limitarianism. I aspire to see how incorporating these insightful frameworks can facilitate a more just and equitable distribution of public goods.

I interpret Narrativity primarily as a capability to construct and understand personal narratives through interpersonal interactions. I wish to investigate how having and preserving this ability could contribute to one's (lifetime) well-being.

Instead of perceiving freedom as mere non-interference, I lean towards the republican conception of freedom as non-domination. The structural dominations I seek to examine include, but are not limited to:

1. Class-based Domination

2. Domination reinforced by discriminatory norms and values, such as:

   • Racial hierarchy established upon cultural disregard

   • Patriarchy based on binary thinking of gender roles

   • Ageism generated by youth supremacy

Some critical questions I aim to explore:

1. Any discriminatory act or thought is wrong, but what causes such wrongness? Moral failures, such as dehumanizing the other person? Epistemic failures, such as holding unreflected cognitive biases? Or even both?

2. If moral and epistemic factors cannot be separated in the context of discrimination, how should the corresponding responsibilities be allocated among individuals (and the institutions behind them)?

Some central questions I'm concerned with:

1. Is love inherently selfish, or under what circumstances can it be selfless?

2. Do we have any moral duties in loving relationships? What norms and values motivate us to undertake or abandon such obligations?

3. Is sex only a biological act, or does it carry more profound existential significance?