Yuqi Liang

Uehiro Scholarship for Future Generations

Joining us from: China

DPhil Philosophy (2023)

I am Yuqi Liang, a first-year DPhil candidate in Philosophy at St Cross College, Oxford. In my DPhil thesis, I aim to develop an account of well-being (an answer to the question “What makes a life go well or badly?”) and meaning in life (an answer to the question “What makes a life meaningful or lacking in meaning?”) and apply the resulting account to a range of practical issues.

More specifically, I have an interest in developing a version of hedonism as a theory of well-being (the view that, ultimately, pleasure makes one’s life go well, and pain makes one’s life go badly).

I will offer an account of what pleasure and pain are and identify new ways to respond to or to dissolve the objections put to hedonism in recent decades, thereby attempting to restore this historically respected but currently unpopular position to its proper place in moral philosophy. Turning to the question of meaning in life, I will offer an account of meaningfulness and explore its relations to well-being and to morality, neither of which is often discussed or well-understood. Some of the questions I address in this part may include: “Is a life a better one by virtue of its being meaningful, or a worse one by virtue of its being meaningless?” “Can a morally depraved life or a life full of suffering still be meaningful?” “Does meaningfulness or meaninglessness give one a prudential or moral reason to act?” Finally, I will draw out some practical implications of the theoretical view I defend, some of which concern new technologies on the horizon (e.g. virtual reality, digital minds) and others involve pressing and difficult problems (e.g. end-of-life care, the threat of extinction). In doing so, I will help others navigate ethical issues in the real world—which has been the point of moral philosophy all along. 

Originally from Beijing, China, I studied Philosophy and Music as an undergraduate student at Princeton University. My Senior Thesis, supervised by Prof. Peter Singer and Prof. Grace Helton, was on the conflict between egoism and impartial morality and the evolutionary origin of our moral beliefs. I went on to do the BPhil in Philosophy at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where I studied various topics in metaphysics, ethics, and political philosophy and completed a thesis, supervised by Prof. Adrian Moore, on death and immortality. Outside of philosophy, I enjoy playing the violin, the piano, and (recently) the organ at Pusey House. I also compose my own music. My favourite composer is Johannes Brahms, whose rationally restrained Romanticism and sophisticated blend of tradition and innovation have a marked influence on the kind of music I write and, less obviously, on my approach to philosophy. 

I am deeply grateful to the Uehiro Foundation for its generous support that enables me to pursue my DPhil research at Oxford under the supervision of Prof. Roger Crisp. It is truly an honour to have this opportunity to work on issues that matter among many excellent and like-minded peers and mentors. I am also grateful to be a part of the intellectually diverse and stimulating community at St Cross College.