I am Dmitry (Jiyuan) Sun, a first-year DPhil student in political theory. I specialise in contemporary political philosophy, with focuses on political liberalism, autonomy, state toleration, and public morality. In my DPhil dissertation, I develop a (non-Rawlsian) "right-based conception" of political liberalism that grounds the legitimacy of a political-liberal state upon persons' right of ethical self-determination and balances this right against public morality - an ethics of decency that sustains a "moral ecology" instrumentally necessary even for the near-minimalist political-liberal state that I envision. I also look a bit into methodological issues in contemporary political philosophy such as the ideal vs non-ideal theory debate, the issue of partial compliance, and the fact-(in)sensitivity of normative principles.
I completed my MPhil at Oxford DPIR. Before that, I got my BAs (summa cum laude) from the dual-degree program between Duke Kunshan and Duke, with a major in philosophy.
