LI, Hon-lam

Professor

B.A. (Princeton); M.A. (Oxford); Ph.D (Cornell)
Rm 425
39437144
honlamli@hotmail.com

Brief Biography

I was majoring in physics at Princeton University when I took Thomas Nagel’s course, Philosophy 101, by accident. At the end of the semester I switched my major to philosophy. My two Junior Papers and my Senior Thesis were written under the supervision of Nancy Cartwright, Thomas Nagel, and Thomas Scanlon respectively. I was accepted into Oxford’s B.Phil. program in philosophy. Upon arrival in Oxford, I told Professor H. L. A. Hart of my interests in Philosophy of Law. Having accepted his advice, I switched into Oxford’s program in jurisprudence (a legal program) before the Term started. I took legal and philosophical subjects. In philosophy, I was tutored by John Mackie, John McDowell, Jonathan Glover, and John Finnis. I received my Ph.D. in philosophy at Cornell University, where I was supervised by Allen Wood.

I returned back to Hong Kong to practice law as a junior barrister. Three years later, I taught philosophy at the Colorado College. Subsequently, I returned to Hong Kong to teach at Lingnan College briefly, before taking up my post at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

I have been an academic visitor at All Souls College, Oxford, a Visiting Scholar at Cornell Univeristy, a Visiting Fellow at Robinson College, Cambridge, and as a Fulbright Visiting Senior Scholar at Harvard University.

I am currently working on a book in Practical Ethics.

Research Interests

  1. Practical Ethics
  2. Ethics
  3. Political Philosophy
  4. Philosophy of Law

Selected Publications

  1. Hon-Lam Li, “Public Reason as The Way for Dialogue,” The American Journal of Bioethics, forthcoming.
  2. Hon-Lam Li, “Rawlsian Political Liberalism, Public Reason, and Bioethics,” in Hon-Lam Li and Michael Campbell, eds., Public Reason and Bioethics: Three Traditions, London: Palgrave Macmillan, December 2020.
  3. Hon-Lam Li, “Replies to Farrell and Tham, and Fan,” in Hon-Lam Li and Michael Campbell, eds., Public Reason and Bioethics: Three Traditions, London: Palgrave Macmillan, December 2020.
  4. Hon-Lam Li, “Further Reflections,” in Hon-Lam Li and Michael Campbell, eds., Public Reason and Bioethics: Three Traditions, London: Palgrave Macmillan, December 2020.
  5. Hon-Lam Li and Michael Campbell, “Introduction,” in Hon-Lam Li and Michael Campbell, eds., Public Reason and Bioethics: Three Traditions, London: Palgrave Macmillan, December 2020.
  6. Hon-Lam Li and Michael Campbell, eds., Public Reason and Bioethics: Three Traditions, London: Palgrave Macmillan, December 2020.
  7. Hon-Lam Li, Nancy S. Jecker, Roger Yat-Nork Chung, “Reopening Economies During the COIVD-19 Pandemic: Reasoning about Value Trade-Offs,” American Journal of Bioethics, 20: 7 (2020), 136-138.
  8. Roger Yat-Nork Chung, Alexandre Erler, Hon-Lam Li, Derrick Au, “Using a Public Health Ethics Framework to Unpick Discrimination in COVID-19 Responses,” American Journal of Bioethics, 20: 7 (2020), 114-116.
  9. Hon-Lam Li, Commentary dated 25 March 2020 on Sridhar Venkatapuram, “COVID-19 and the Global Ethics Freefall,” Hastings Bioethics Forum, March 19, 2020.  https://www.thehastingscenter.org/covid-19-and-the-global-ethics-freefall/
  10. Hon-Lam Li, Commentary dated 23 March 2020 on Sridhar Venkatapuram, “COVID-19 and the Global Ethics Freefall,” Hastings Bioethics Forum, March 19, 2020.  https://www.thehastingscenter.org/covid-19-and-the-global-ethics-freefall/
  11. Hon-Lam Li (2017), “Contractualism and the Death Penalty,” Criminal Justice Ethics, 36:2, 152-182, DOI: 10.1080/0731129X.2017.1358912.
  12. Hon-Lam Li (2016), “What We Owe to Terminally Ill Patients: The Option of Physician-Assisted Suicide,” Asian Bioethics Review, 8:3 (September 2016), 224-243.
  13. Hon-Lam Li (2015), “Contractualism and Punishment”, Criminal Justice Ethics, 34:2, 177-209, DOI: 10.1080/0731129X.2015.1067959.
  14. Hon-Lam Li, Hon-Lam Li (2013), “Engelhardt on the Family,” International Journal of Chinese and Comparative Philosophy of Medicine, 2013, 153-160.
  15. Hon-Lam Li (2011), “On Happiness,” World Policy Journal, Summer 2011, pp. 4-5
  16. Hon-Lam Li (2011), “Kant and Applied Ethics,” Wen-Sheng Wang, ed., The New Horizon of Chinese-language Philosophy, 2011, 611-626.
  17. Hon-Lam Li (2011), “Abortion and Degrees of Personhood,” originally published in Public Affairs Quarterly; translated into Chinese and published in Chinese and International Philosophy of Medicine, VII:2, 9-28 (by invitation).
  18. Hon-Lam Li (2007), New Essays in Applied Ethics: Animal Rights, Personhood, and the Ethics of Killing, Palgrave Macmillan (co-editor).
  19. Hon-Lam Li (2007), New Essays in Applied Ethics, Introduction, 1-26.
  20. Hon-Lam Li (2007), “Toward Quasi-vegetarianism,” in Hon-Lam Li and Anthony Yeung, eds., New Essays in Applied Ethics, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
  21. Hon-Lam Li (2003), “Economic Justice,” in ‘Institutional Issues Involving Ethics and Justice.” Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS). Developed under the auspices of the UNESCO. Editied by Robert Elliot. 17 pages. Oxford, United Kingdom: Eolss Publishers [http://www.eolss.net].
  22. Hon-Lam Li (2002), “Animal Research, Non-vegetarianism, and the Moral Status of Animals — Understanding the Impasse of the Animal Rights Problem,” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 2002, vol. 27, No. 5, pp. 589-615.
  23. Hon-Lam Li (1997), “Abortion and Degrees of Personhood,” Public Affairs Quarterly, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 1-19.