Learning Statement​

The overarching theme of my learning statement might be summed up in the title “Reflections from a Recovering Rationalist.” In philosophy, rationalism is the view that knowledge derives from reason rather than experience. To my high school self, it also meant an attempt to live my life by a value-neutral objectivity, carefully analyzing the costs and benefits of each decision and following all the rules. However, as I was applying to college and confronted with the existential freedom of being able to decide what I wanted to do with my life for the first time, I suddenly realized that there was no objectively correct decision to make, and that rational theorizing could not substitute for my own values (I even wrote my college admissions essay on this topic). For me, college has been a journey of self-discovery, finding answers to the questions of who I am and what I value, rather than what's "objectively rational" for me to do. Through college I've found myself resonating with critiques of rationalism in different ways, and have collected some of those below.

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Practice Makes Perfect (Experiential Learning): The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle held that moral character consists in habits and dispositions that can only be cultivated through moral practice. As studied for exams in my intro classes early on in college, one piece of advice from a high school teacher remained in my mind: “the biggest predictor of how well you do on standardized tests is how many practice tests you take.” In machine learning terms, the more training data that you have, the better the performance on the test data. With this in mind, I studied for exams by taking as many practice exams as possible—a strategy which has generally proven successful for me. As I’ve reached upper-level classes, I’ve realized that in “real life,” there isn’t a set of “practice exams” for you to take. My upper-level classes have often been project-based, expecting students to contribute a new piece of knowledge to an existing field. My approach to learning has also had to shift: though I don't have practice exams anymore, I still strive to put my learning into practice by finding creative ways to apply concepts to problems that I'm passionate about solving.
 

Theorize from the Periphery (Diversity): Latin American philosopher Enrique Dussel argued that real philosophy always starts from the periphery before challenging the dominant ideas of the time (or at least, Dr. Mendoza explained it to me in PHIL 419: Latin American Philosophy). Throughout my time at UW, I've come to realize the valuable knowledge that marginalized perspectives can provide, forms of knowledge that are often obscured by dominant ways of knowing. In philosophy, I’ve pursued a diversity of thought by taking classes in non-canonical philosophical traditions (many of which also challenge rationalism), including Latin American philosophy, Jewish philosophy, and Chinese philosophy. Perhaps the most visible example of this theme has been my long-running engagement with African philosophy, a topic you can read more about in my reflections here.
 

Ethics as First Philosophy (Service): Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas called ethics “first philosophy” in arguing that we enter the world already indebted to the Other—an ethical obligation that precedes rationalization. Since I learned about Levinas' work, which was written in the shadow of the Holocaust, my approach to learning has itself been informed by Levinas' call for ethics as first philosophy. In my philosophy major, I decided to pursue an ethics concentration, while in my computer science major, I’ve taken a wide variety of ethics-related classes to understand the ethical implications of new technological developments like AI. I’ve also developed a passion for applying my technical skills for the service of others through a variety of experiential learning opportunities, including working as a software engineering fellow for the Baltimore City government and using my machine learning skills to support the UW for Center for Human Rights.
 

Unexpected Connections (Interdisciplinarity): The ancient Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi held that the height of virtue consists in adapting to the unexpected twists and turns of life without attempting to impose preformed moral judgements about how the world should be. In this vein, another important lesson that I continue to grapple with is learning how to embrace the unexpected. I’ve found that some of the most rewarding experiences during my time at UW have come from unexpected connections with new people and ideas. My most recent research project, for example, started as the result of an unexpected connection with another computer science and philosophy student in my Jewish Philosophy class. Another meaningful yet unexpected connection was when my interdisciplinary honors peer mentor connected me with the UW Center for Human Rights as we were catching up during a coffee chat. These experiences have shown me the value of embracing the unexpected by putting myself into situations where I can meet new people and hear new ideas. Of course, the uncertain future remains scary, but the value of unexpected connections throughout college has given me a way to face this uncertaity with more optimism.

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​How to Read my Portfolio

My honors portfolio is organized after my 4-year course plan from HONORS 100: I've divided my portfolio up by quarters, and grouped the quarters into years. For each quarter, I've listed either the class I took that quarter (Autumn through Spring), or the activities I did (Summer). Below the list of classes are reflections about experiences from that quarter (although some quarters may not have reflections). Each reflection is tagged with themes from my learning statement (along with a few extra tags for you to explore!).