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Beyond Kindness and Malice

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Xinyue Tong was awarded a Spring 2016 Conference Grant to present at the Eastern Michigan University Undergraduate Conference in Philosophy.

 Presenting my philosophy paper “Beyond Kindness and Malice” at Eastern Michigan University (EMU)’s 6th Undergraduate Conference in Philosophy has been an unforgettable experience and a fond memory. I not only received instructive feedback from my commenter, but also learned from my fellow presenters. Moreover, attending other presentations and conducting further discussions enabled me to learn new perspectives of philosophy.
The conference started on March 5th at McKenny Hall of EMU. Each presenter had 20 minutes to present his or her research paper with the aid of a white board. After receiving formal comments from a previously assigned commenter, the presenter had 25 minutes to conduct Q & A with the audience.

My presentation was set in the afternoon, and here is a quick view of what my paper was about: “Beyond Kindness and Malice” analyzes and expands on Nietzsche’s aphorism §184 in Beyond Good and Evil. By examining the relationship between “an excessive amount of goodness” and “evilness” from theory to practice, I argue that these two opposing concepts interrelate closely, support and complement each other in light of relativism and ethics. Their coexistence in a fictional context often acts as a strong literary device of dramatic tension for the narrative. However, within constraints of reality, the bond is more visible between good and bad than between good and evil.


After attending the morning session, I was exposed to an enormous amount of new ideas and perspectives, such as the Philosophy of Mind and even using Saul Kripke’s Argument to examine the impossibility of unicorns. Then all of a sudden I felt inspired and added a real world example to my final argument: analyzing the case of Werner Heisenberg in the Atomic Bomb Project. This case actually elicited a meaningful discussion during the Q & A session of my presentation and received positive comments from my commenter.


After my presentation, a philosophy professor at EMU pointed out some potential improvements in my structure, and recommended some other resources, such as Aristotle’s Theory of Evil to further investigate the subject matter. His suggestion was particularly helpful. Even after the end of my session, some other participants reached out to me and we discussed about our own experience and interests in philosophy. Though we barely knew each other before the conference and we had different backgrounds and experiences (A student from the American University of Cairo even flew 16 hours to attend this conference!), our passion for philosophy made us seem to know each other for decades.

I sincerely thank Emory University, and especially Undergraduate Research Programs for making such an experience possible. It has been my very first experience of attending an academic conference, and this memory will stick with me for years to come. 

 Visit the Undergraduate Research Programs website to learn more about applying for Conference Grants.
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