Exploring the Idea of Public Reason: Studying the Later Rawls’s philosophy by the archival approach

In 2021, I was awarded a research grant by the UGC under the Faculty Development Scheme (FDS), which parallels the General Research Fund (GRF) for private universities in Hong Kong. As the Principal Investigator (PI) of this project, my objective is to bridge the research gap in John Rawls's later work by studying his archival papers concerning public reason—a central tenet of his philosophy. This project is expected to deepen the understanding of Rawls's theories and potentially provide strong justifications for liberal democracy.

However, the Faculty Development Scheme stipulates that the PI must be affiliated with private universities. Consequently, upon my transition from Hang Seng University to Hong Kong Baptist University in 2023, I handed over the PI role to Dr. Man-kong Li, who was the Co-Investigator (Co-I) at the time. Subsequently, I assumed the position of Co-I. Despite this change, I remain primarily responsible for the execution of this research project even after my move to HKBU.