WORK
CURRENT RESEARCH
Doctoral Thesis
'The Politics of Belief in Hume and Enlightenment Scepticism' reconstructs Hume's thought as a sceptical project situated in the history of scepticism from Pierre Bayle to the Kant-Jacobi debate. I show that the relationship between faith, science and philosophy was the primary concern for thinkers in this period. I argue that Enlightenment scepticism aims at exercising a stabilising effect on society and politics through educating public opinion, which further encourages a pluralist political culture that accommodates disagreement, addresses credulity, and curtails extreme beliefs. In advancing this perspective, my work overturns the binary understanding of Pyrrhonian and Academic Schools and the stereotype of scepticism’s negative impact derived from the British idealists’ interpretation. I suggest that Enlightenment scepticism's multivalency and constructiveness, in historical terms, laid the ground for contemporary liberalism.
PUBLICATIONS
Refereed Articles
'The Role of Philosophy in Hume's Critique of Empire', International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 2023, advance online publication, DOI: 10.1080/09672559.2023.2235580.
'Empire and Liberty in Adam Ferguson’s Republicanism', History of European Ideas, 48:7 (2022), 909-929, DOI: 10.1080/01916599.2022.2040045.
Postdoc Project
'The Sustainable Political Economy of the Stationary State in Enlightenment and Post-Enlightenment Thought' looks into the C18th and C19th debates on economic, cultural and intellectual stagnation. I investigate how modern scepticism challenged conventional ideas of growth and prevailing faith in progress to show the ways political economists proposed reform plans supporting distributive justice and sustainability.
Review Essays
'Review: Richard Whatmore, The End of Enlightenment: Empire, Commerce, Crisis', Society (2024), online first.
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‘The Multifaced Hume’, New History, 32:2 (2021), 331–42.
‘The Role of Consent in Locke’s Theory of State’, Historical Inquiry, Journal of National Taiwan University, 66 (2020), 201–36.
‘The Political Ideal of the Enlightenment in the American Revolution’, Intellectual History, 9 (2019), 491–506.
‘The Historical Depth of Ancient and Modern Political Thought: On Melissa Lane’s Greek and Roman Political Ideas’, New History, 30:1 (2019), 167–78.
‘A Review of Alexander Broadie’s A History of Scottish Philosophy’, National Taiwan University Philosophical Review, 56 (2018), 177–202.
Other
Commissioned Article
‘Hume and Rousseau on Liberty’, Liberty Matters series, Liberty Fund Online Library, 21st November 2024.
‘Scepticism from the Pyrrhonian Crisis to Hume‘, Journal of the History of Ideas Blog, 28th July, 2021.
Guest Editorship of Journal Special Issue
'David Hume and Political Epistemology', Cosmos and Taxis, 12:1–2 (2024).
PRESENTATIONS
Conference & Invited Talks
‘An Enlightenment Critique of Ancient Prudence’, î‚ŠThe Society of Humankind: Roman Justice from Antiquity to the Enlightenment Conference, May 2025, NYU School of Law
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‘Enlightenment Scepticism, the Conditions for Political Stability’, Cambridge Political Thought Seminar, University of Cambridge, 5 May 2025, Cambridge, UK.
‘Hume, Bolingbroke, and the Problem of Enlightened Monarchy’, British History in the Long 18th Century Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, 6 November 2024, London, UK.
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‘Scepticism and the Justification of Political Legitimacy in Harrington, Montesquieu and Hume’, Early Career Seminar in the History of Political Ideas, Institute of Historical
Research, 8 May 2024, London, UK.
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‘Opinion and Prudence in Harrington and Hume’, British and Irish Association for Political Thought Conference, Jesus College, University of Cambridge, 4–6 January, 2024, Cambridge, UK.
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'The Role of Philosophy in Hume’s Critiques of British Imperial Politics', Early Moderns on the Power of Philosophy, University College Dublin, 14–15 October 2022, Dublin, Ireland.
'Hume’s Political Epistemology and the Critiques of Empire', Histories of Knowledge: Political, Historical and Cultural Epistemologies in Intellectual History, ISIH Conference, Università Ca' Foscari, 12-15 September 2022, Venice, Italy.
‘History as the Ethics of Belief: the Case of Hume’s History of England’, Intellectual History Graduate Conference, European University Institute, 7–8 June 2022, Florence, Italy.
'Belief and Action in Hume’s Religion', Naturalizing Religion in the Scottish Enlightenment Conference, organised by the Center for Ethics, University of Antwerp and the Institute for the Study of Scottish Philosophy, 8–10 September 2021, Antwerp, Belgium.
'Adam Ferguson on Political Representation and the Liberty of the British Empire', Oxford Graduate Conference in Political Theory, 26–27 April 2021, online.
'Empire and Liberty in Adam Ferguson's Republicanism', Research Center for Humanities and Social Science, Academia Sinica, 21 August 2020, Taipei, Taiwan.
'Beyond Liberal and Conservative: The Third Way of Reading Hume', Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, 13 August 2020, Taipei, Taiwan.