My research area is the philosophy of intelligence, with a core focus on the phenomenon of intelligent action. While humans perform a wide variety of actions daily, not all actions qualify as intelligent actions; only certain actions reveal underlying special mental states or qualities, such as intelligence or skill. The primary philosophical questions I investigate include: (1) How can humans, through learning only a limited number of sentences, grasp and understand infinitely many sentences, including those never previously encountered? (2) How can humans still make moral judgments and take actions that mutually benefit one another when explicit moral rules do not provide clear guidance in complex situations? (3) These two questions can be seen as special cases of a more fundamental question: How do humans think and act within a specific domain when faced with uncertainty and complexity, successfully and reliably achieving domain-specific goals? By exploring these questions, my research aims to uncover the nature and deep structure of intelligence while further elucidating the relationships among mind, knowledge, and action.
Reflecting on my academic journey, my research can be broadly divided into three stages, each corresponding to one of the three questions above and making significant contributions to these areas of inquiry. In the first stage (doctoral research), my work focused on the relationship between linguistic knowledge and linguistic competence, engaging with theories of meaning proposed by contemporary analytic philosophers such as Donald Davidson and Michael Dummett. I proposed a virtue-theoretic approach to semantics, called virtue semantics, as a novel perspective on linguistic understanding. In the second stage, I worked on developing a theoretical account of knowledge-how, formulating the conception of hybrid skill, which builds upon yet surpasses the anti-intellectualism of British philosopher Gilbert Ryle. This conception elucidates the nature and structure of practical knowledge.
In the third stage of my research, spanning roughly the past decade, I have deepened the conception of hybrid skill, using it as a foundation to construct a theory of practical wisdom (phronesis). Practical wisdom is the most excellent form of practical reasoning, yet debates persist regarding its nature and acquisition. In response to these challenges, I proposed the expertise theory of wisdom, arguing that wisdom should be regarded as a skill. I have specified the necessary conditions for wisdom-as-skill, defined its conception of well-being, and addressed theoretical objections. This philosophical theory has interdisciplinary implications, providing a conceptual foundation for the psychology of wisdom. Additionally, my research on wisdom engages with the emotional revolution, examining the role of emotions in wisdom in depth. I developed the skill account of the emotions of the wise as a supplement to the expertise theory of wisdom, further refining my theoretical framework for the study of wisdom.
The study of wisdom holds both theoretical and practical value. On one hand, wisdom, as an excellence in practical reasoning, plays a crucial role in judgment and decision-making in complex situations, and in this regard, it serves as a valuable subject for philosophical and psychological inquiries into the mind. On the other hand, wisdom research contributes to understanding the practical capacities needed in contemporary society, such as political wisdom and civic wisdom, fostering deeper discussions and solutions for social issues. Currently, my wisdom research extends to the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence (AI), examining how AI impacts human cognition and well-being from a philosophical perspective. I also explore the theoretical and practical possibility of artificial wisdom, offering novel perspectives and directions for the future development of machine ethics.
