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