Alexander Pho

Alexander Pho received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Oregon State University in 2018 and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2024. His research interests are mainly in the areas of moral, political, and social philosophy. Some of his more niche research interests are in the subfields of Chinese philosophy, philosophy of games and sport, philosophy of race, and environmental philosophy. Some of the questions Pho has tried to address in his scholarship include “How should we respond to the fact that many Asian Americans oppose race-conscious admissions policies?” and “What forms of exclusion from organized sports are morally unjustifiable?”

Research Interests

Moral philosophy (including metaethics), social and political philosophy, philosophy of race, Chinese philosophy, philosophy of games and sport, environmental philosophy

Distinctions

Chauncey S. Truax Post-Doctoral Fellow in Philosophy

Selected Publications

• “Asian Americans, Negative Action, and Racial Indirection.” David H. Kim (ed.). Republic Re-Oriented: Essays in Asian American Philosophy. (Forthcoming at SUNY Press)
• "Asian Americans and Affirmative Action." Maya von Ziegesar, David H. Kim, and Ronald R. Sundstrom (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Asian American Philosophy. (Formally invited, contract pending at Oxford University Press)
• “A Confucian Mutualist Theory of Sport.” Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 50(2) (2023): 256-280.
• “Saving the Last Person from Radical Scepticism: How to Justify Attributions of Intrinsic Value to Nature without Intuition or Empirical Evidence” (Co-authored with Allen Thompson). Environmental Values 32 (2023): 91-111.
• “On a Purported Disanalogy between Cycling and Mixed Martial Arts” (Co-authored with Benjamin A. White). Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 49(2) (2022): 177-194.

Professional Affiliations

American Philosophical Association
International Association for the Philosophy of Sport

Appointed to the Faculty

2024

Educational Background

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison
B.A., Oregon State University