Vold (Mingzhe) Cao
Founder, Editor-in-Chief from 25' - present
Founder / Editor-in-Chief / Author
Beijing No. 80 High School (International Dept.) 28', interested in and conducting research in experimental philosophy, analytic philosophy, philosophy of AI, physics/astronomy, and ML. Founder of BoMinds (https://bominds.org), a network promoting critical thinking and liberal arts education by connecting Chinese students to high-quality resources and activities; Founder of iPhilosophy Global Seminar Club (held on Schoolhouse, https://schoolhouse.world/series/61492), a socratic seminar series with over 70 registered participants from roughly 20 countries.
- Published work
- 8
- Related initiatives
- 2
Published work
Stories and creative work credited to Vold (Mingzhe) Cao.
Episode 4: the Extended Mind
Is the mind really confined within the skull? When notebooks, tools, and the world around us continually participate in memory and thought, might they become part of the mind itself?
Episode 3: Singer's Drowning Child
If saving someone costs us very little, are we morally required to act? Peter Singer’s “drowning child” thought experiment asks whether distance should make any difference to what we owe others.
"Mind-Dependent Objectivity": A Preliminary Exploration
This essay, by defending “mind-dependent objectivity,” shows how morality can depend on human attitudes while still allowing for better and worse moral judgments. It argues that moral disagreement does not eliminate the possibility of moral objectivity.
Why and When Germline Editing is Permissible
This article argues that gene editing for the purpose of curing or preventing serious disease can be morally acceptable, even when future children cannot consent, because parents already make many welfare-shaping decisions before children can exercise autonomy. It defends a cautious, regulated approach that permits therapeutic edits while rejecting cosmetic or preference-based genetic control that risks objectifying children, encouraging eugenics, and undermining their future moral personhood.
In-vitro Meat and a Relational Argument For Meat as "Morally Permissible Moral Mistakes"
This article argues that in-vitro meat is ethically preferable to ordinary meat because it avoids killing animals while preserving many of the cultural and dietary functions of meat. It defends a relation-based approach to food ethics, claiming that ordinary meat-eating may be "suberogatory" or a morally permissible moral mistake, while lab-grown meat offers a realistic path toward reducing animal suffering, environmental harm, and unfair demands on people with limited dietary options.
Why Salacious Gossiping Is Wrong
This article argues that sexually salacious gossip is morally wrong because it violates privacy, relational trust, and the implicit duties created by intimate relationships. It examines whether truthfulness, sexual content, revenge, and comparisons to celebrity gossip affect the moral status of disclosure, concluding that Jones has a duty not to share Alice’s intimate information without consent.
Episode 2: Is Abortion Really Murder?
If it's not murder to refuse to provide an organ that is essential for someone's survival, is abortion murder simply because it refuses to provide the fetus with the abdomen?
Episode 1: The Sorites Paradox
Could a grain of sand be a heap?
Related initiatives
Projects connected to this person without changing authorship credit.