Dr. Jenny Hung has two PhDs, one in philosophy, another in nanophysics. She investigates the nature of the self from both the Western and Eastern perspectives, aiming to answer the most fundamental questions of human existence, such as: “What are we?” “How do we persist?” She was a visiting scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of California, Riverside, and the Australian National University. She also had the opportunity to collaborate with John Perry at Stanford University, exploring the concept of self across different traditions, thanks to a grant. Additionally, she was recently awarded an ECS grant by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council for the project titled "Between Buddha-nature and Emptiness: The Peak Era of Chinese Buddhism."

Research Interests

Chinese Philosophy, Buddhism, Philosophy of Mind, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence.

Representative Publications

Books

1. Hung, J. Between Buddha-nature and Emptiness: The Peak Era of Chinese Buddhist Philosophy. Oxford University Press. (Contract Signed)
2. Hung, J. What am I? Personal Ontology in Chinese Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. (Revise and resubmit)
3. Hung, J. 出世與入世之間 Between Secular and Spiritual. (Full Manuscript Under Review)

International Peer-reviewed Journal Papers (Philosophy)

1. Hung, J. (Forthcoming) Better be a Zombie? The Value of Consciousness in Early Buddhism. Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Mind, Vol. 5.
2. Hung, J. (2024). We Are the Same Mind! A Study of Zongmi’s Idea of the True Mind. Philosophy East and West, 75:4. https://doi.org/10.1353/pew.2024.a937182
3. Hung, J. (2024). Reflexive Awareness and Reflexivity: An Identity Model of Reflexive Awareness with Korta and Perry’s Reflexive-Referential Theory of Content. Synthese. 204:30 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-024-04688-8
4. Gao J., Leung, H., Wu, W. W. Y., Hung, J., Chang, C., Sik, H. H. (2023). Long-Term Inquiry Meditation Reduces EEG Spectral Dynamics in Self-Schema Processing. Heliyon. 9(9), E20075. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20075
5. Hung, J. (2023). Phenomenal Concepts and Animal Consciousness. Philosophical Psychology. 36 (3): 580-600. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2022.2072722
6. Hung, J. (2020). Is Dharma-nature Identical to Ignorance? A study of “ji 即” in early Tiantai Buddhism. Asian Philosophy. Issue 30 (4): 307-323. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09552367.2020.1846873
7. Hung, J. (2020). A Gricean Interpretation of Nāgārjuna’s Catuskoti and the No-thesis View. History and Philosophy of Logic. Vol. 41 (3): 217-235. https://doi.org/10.1080/01445340.2020.1786266
8. Hung, J. (2020). Is Zhuangzi a Wanton? Observation and Transformation of Desires in the Zhuangzi. Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy, 19 (2): 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-020-09723-2
9. Hung, J. (2019). The Theory of the Self in the Zhuangzi: A Strawsonian Interpretation. Philosophy East and West 69:2, 376-394. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/731256
10. Hung, J. (2018). The Early Yogācāra Theory of No-self. Asian Philosophy 28.4: 316 – 331 https://doi.org/10.1080/09552367.2018.1543055

International Peer-reviewed Journal Papers (Physics)

11. Wang X., Gao W., Hung J., and Tam W. Y. (2014). Optical activities of large-area SU8 micro-spirals fabricated by multi-beam holographic lithography., Appl. Opt. 53, 2425-2430 (https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.53.002425)
12. Hung J., Gao W., and Tam W. Y. (2011). Optical activities of micro-spiral photonic crystals fabricated by multi-beam holographic lithography. J. Opt. 13, 095101 (https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2040-8978/13/9/095102/meta)
13. Hung J., Chan P. S., Sun C., Ho C. W. and Tam W. Y. (2010). Doubly slanted layer structures in holographic gelatin emulsions: solar concentrators. J. Opt. 12 045104  (https://doi.org/10.1088/2040-8978/12/4/045104)
14. Hung J., Kok M., Tam W. Y. (2009). Complete photonic bandgaps in the visible range from spherical layer structures in dichromate gelatin emulsions. App. Phys. Lett. 94, 014102 (https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.3064165)

Book Chapters (Philosophy)

15. Hung J. (Forthcoming). An Analysis of Jizang's Idea of Reality. In “Reading Primary Sources in Asian Philosophies.” Malcolm Keating (Ed.). Bloomsbury.
16. Hung J. (Forthcoming). Evil, Suffering, and Meditation in the Tiantai school. In Volume II, “Chinese Philosophy and Its Thinkers: From Ancient Times to the Present Day.” Selusi Ambrogio & Dawid Rogacz (Eds.). Bloomsbury.
17. (Invited) Hughes J. J, Sarbacker S., Tormen F., Hung, J. Buddhism, AI, and Human Enhancement. In “Through a Buddhist Lens. In “Buddhist Perspectives on Consciousness, Evolution, and AI.” Chiara Mascarello and Francesco Tormen (Eds.). Wisdom.
18. (Invited) Adam, M., Tormen, F., Hung, J., Goodman, C. Can AI systems be phenomenally consciousness? In “Through a Buddhist Lens. In “Buddhist Perspectives on Consciousness, Evolution, and AI.” Chiara Mascarello and Francesco Tormen (Eds.). Wisdom.
19. (Invited) Hung, J. Jizang’s notion of Buddha-nature. In “Buddhist Philosophy between India and China: From Madhyamaka to Sanlun.” Rafal Stepien (Ed.) Oxford University Press.
20. (Invited) Hung, J. Introspection in the Buddhist philosophical tradition. In “The Routledge Handbook of Introspection.” Anna Giustina (Ed.) Routledge.
21. Hung, J. (2011). The Three-fold Interpretation of Chih-I’s ‘Ignorance Equals Nature of Dharma’ (in Chinese). In “Dialogues in Chinese, Japanese and Korean T'ien-T'ai Buddhism.” (ed.). Tian Xiang Ma. Beijing, Renmin Publisher

 Grants and Funds

2024 – 2027    Principal investigator, “Between Buddha-nature and Emptiness: The Peak Era of Chinese Buddhism,” Early Career Scheme (ECS), The Hong Kong Research Grants Council (HKD 340,249)

2020 – 2024    Research Fund, “The Self: Eastern and Western Traditions”, (collaborate with John Perry), Stanford University (USD 33,000)

2020                Research Fund Award, New York University Abu Dhabi (USD 5,000)