UA News
UA Alumni:Kida Lin
Kida was the Oceania Regional Winner in the Philosophy category in 2020.
Since he was awarded, he has begun his Master’s degree (BPhil) in Philosophy at Oxford University.
What are you doing now and what has happened since the award?
I started my current degree at Oxford in October 2020. It has been a great and challenging experience. Oxford has an incredible academic environment, and I have had an amazingly supportive and inspiring supervisor.
I have deepened my interest in moral and political philosophy, which developed during my undergrad (I graduated with a BA (Hons) in Philosophy at the Australian National University in 2019) and I plan to pursue further studies in philosophy.
I like theoretical questions. Some of the questions I have written on include
1) Whether the permissibility of abortion can depend on whether it is done via one act with multiple effects, or a sequence of multiple acts with the same effects,
2) Whether, in other-defence, one ought to impose the unavoidable costs of the defensive action on beneficiaries of that action, rather than on mere bystanders, and
3) Whether the permissibility of harming an individual, for the purpose of averting the harm that she would otherwise inflict on innocent people, can depend on whether the act that harms this individual will also avert harms that would otherwise be inflicted on innocent people by other individuals.
Has receiving an award for your hard work helped?
Yes – and I have a fun and somewhat unusual story about how it has helped. A few weeks after I started my current degree, someone in my cohort messaged me and asked if I saw that I was named a regional winner (He was also a regional winner that year). It was one of the first few times we spoke; he is now my best friend.
Why should students submit their work?
It’s certainly worth giving it a try. I think what’s good about working towards a submission is not only that you will have a chance of winning something, but also that the process itself can be motivating, which is valuable regardless of the outcome of your submission.
