Henry is a student from Hong Kong double majoring in Philosophy and Political Science. He is interested in understanding people’s ethical and political behaviors, and in thinking about their rightness or wrongness. He also enjoys building supportive and inclusive intellectual communities, and sharing thoughts and knowledge with people from all backgrounds. During his time at Penn, he has been a co-founder of the Penn Philosophy Society, a co-chair of the Penn Manuscript Collective, an active participant in Penn’s Philosophy for the Young Project, and a tutor at the Writing Center. He has previously conducted research on moral psychology, the ethics of lending, and is currently (2020 Summer) a research intern in Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the city’s de facto central bank. In his spare time, he enjoys cycling, playing soccer, learning photography, watching (mostly old) movies, and tasting coffee.
Henry Hung
Wolf Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellow
2020—2021 Forum on Choice
Henry Hung
Moral and Political Philosophy; Political Science
Ethical Choices in Social Movements
For the past 40 years, theorists on political disobedience have mostly followed the footstep of John Rawls in considering disobedience as a right of the oppressed, and considering civil (public, non-violent, punishment- accepting) disobedience as the only justifiable form of disobedience in legitimate states. In recent years, however, a number of political theorists and philosophers have risen up against this tradition, suggesting that disobedience is sometimes an obligation rather than a mere right/choice, and that uncivil disobedience may sometimes be justified in legitimate states. This project aims at contributing to the burgeoning literature on this topic by 1) considering a possible Rawlsian response to the above critiques, and 2) assessing opposing theories from the perspective of actual practitioners of disobedient acts.