2019 MITx Philosophy Award Winners

Course: 24.00x Introduction to Philosophy: God, Knowledge and Consciousness

Rajdeep was born in India where he lived for 14 years before moving to New York in the summer of 2002. He attended high school at the United Nations International School, at a time when he started pondering and discussing philosophical issues. After high school he studied engineering at Cornell University, though his love of philosophy endured. His current philosophical interests include ethics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and epistemology. He now works as a software developer at JPM, writing code for a risk management system in a language called smalltalk. Besides philosophy, Rajdeep’s passions include music (singing, piano, guitar), and insight meditation for which he attends silent retreats (lasting a week or longer) every year. He thoroughly enjoyed the MIT course, which has not only sharpened his philosophical skills but has also inspired him to study more philosophy.

Course: 24.118x Paradox and Infinity, Philosophy Forum Award Winner

A native of Providence, Rhode Island, Brendon’s interest in Philosophy began when, as a teenager, he stumbled upon a copy of Bertrand Russell’s A History of Western Philosophy in a used bookstore. He went on to study Mathematics and Philosophy at Rhode Island College in Providence, Rhode Island. He is presently in the final year of an M.S. in computer science in the OMSCS program at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He still lives in Providence, RI, with his spouse Kelsey and their two cats, Archimedes and W. Me.Ow. Quine.

Course: 24.118x Paradox and Infinity

Award essay: “Bacon’s Strategy to Win the Infinite Hat Game: A Falsidical Paradox”

Richard McMasters is a pathologist who is currently living in the Chicago area. In addition to pathology, he has a professional interest in medical informatics and is working on an M.S. in computer science at DePaul University. He enjoys learning about math and physics, reading about history, listening to podcasts, strategy games, and genealogy research.

Course: 24.00x Introduction to Philosophy: God, Knowledge and Consciousness

Vishal is a software engineer at Google. He studied Computer Science at the University of Chicago. He has sustained an amateur’s interest in Philosophy since high school, and now is particularly interested in how higher concepts in theoretical Computer Science, such as computability theory and complexity theory, could be used by philosophers. He hopes one day to either finish reading Parfit’s On What Matters or Knuth’s Art of Computer Programming, as life is probably too short to do both.

Course: 24.00x Introduction to Philosophy: God, Knowledge and Consciousness

Patrick recently escaped a career in aerospace and IP law, which has made time for some previous bad habits—like philosophy of mind, and metaethics! Based in Austin, TX, Patrick enjoys wood-working, chess, and helping his kids, now 10 and 5, navigate the adventures of childhood. Current research interests include the causal efficacy of consciousness, naturalistic emergence of moral norms, and how a 45-year-old is supposed to take a selfie without looking ridiculous. He can be reached at jackzodiac2008 (at) gmail (dot) com.