Kelvin Ko is a third-year student pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy. This year, he remarkably won both of the departmental essay prizes.
Kelvin won the Adam Morton Essay Prize for his essay, The Searchable Past and the Right to Be Forgotten: Oblivion as a Civic Epistemic Good as well as the John Woods Essay Prize for his essay, Remembering the Self: The Memory Argument for Reflexive Consciousness Across Philosophical Traditions.
We chatted with Kelvin to learn a bit more about his time and experiences at the Department of Philosophy and to hear his advice for incoming philosophy students.
“Take classes that you truly enjoy and interest you. This drives both a sense of curiosity, which encourages you to read a lot more than required; and a sense of meaning, which encourages you to push through when things get hard.”
What is one highlight or memorable moment from your time in the Department of Philosophy?
On the social side, I really enjoyed hosting a PhilCafe on disability studies with the UBC Philosophy Students’ Association (PhilSA). The topic has always been dear to my heart, and I read an entire textbook just to prepare. I really appreciate the opportunity to moderate the discussion with philosophy students.
On the academic side, working through that monstrous proof of the undecidability of first order logic in George S. Boolos’ Computability and Logic until it finally made sense, was one of those eureka, I did it! moment for me.
How have you changed since your first year?
I have been honing my philosophical acumen in being able to analyze an argument, breaking it down into its components and premises, questioning validity, and evaluating its strengths and objections. Through developing diverse perspectives, I am at once humbled in knowing that I do not know enough, and yet at the same time more confident in my ability to investigate.
What advice would you give to incoming or current Philosophy students?
Practically speaking, one of the best tips I have gotten about doing philosophy is that, on top of having a clear, precise, well-structured, insightful argument, you should always include strong (non-straw-manned) objections against your own argument, and then try to answer them as well as you can. Being able to do this well will set you on the path to doing better philosophy and getting better grades!
Organizationally speaking, take classes that you truly enjoy and interest you. Topics that, even without extrinsic rewards, would still intrinsically motivate you, because you love what you are doing so much. This drives both a sense of curiosity, which encourages you to read a lot more than required; and a sense of meaning, which encourages you to push through when things get hard.
What are your plans after graduation?
I hope to apply to grad school and further pursue my philosophical interests in philosophy of mind, language, epistemology, metaphysics, and Asian philosophy!
Who or what has had the biggest impact on your time as a Philosophy student?
So many! Ori Simchen’s mentorship over the years has taught me a lot about philosophical methodology.
My interest in analytic idealism has evolved into so much more with Evan Thompson’s teaching, spanning over Asian philosophy, religion, mind, and phenomenology.
I will never forget how my mind is blown every single week in my epistemology seminar with Cat Prueitt on the Pratjyabhjna tradition, feeling like I’m getting a glimpse of something very profound.
Stefan Lukits class on philosophy and literature opened the door for me to the world of interpretation and meaning-making that I still think about a lot.
What is one thing you are most proud of accomplishing during your time at UBC?
I was proud to have all three of my essays individually nominated for the John Woods and Adam Morton essay prize, and for two of them to actually win. Each of them was in different fields and is quite different from each other. I pretty much spent most of my time in 2025 Term 2 researching, thinking, and debating ideas for these three papers, and I was grateful to have my effort recognized.
