Eugene Y. S. Chua
@eugenechua.bsky.social
Nanyang Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Formerly postdoc faculty at Caltech.
I work on philosophy of physics and philosophy of science. More at https://eugenechua.com
BA Cambridge '17, PhD UC San Diego '23.
I work on philosophy of physics and philosophy of science. More at https://eugenechua.com
BA Cambridge '17, PhD UC San Diego '23.
Pinned
Hello world! Quick introduction: I work on philosophy of physics (esp. foundations of thermodynamics, time's emergence) and science (working on an account of idealization/approximation, and have an interest in data ethics and inductive practices). More at: eugenechua.com. Excited to be here!
Wrote a short piece for the IAI, on my recent paper on black holes and global energy! Contrary to title, I don't claim to have the messy truth behind black hole physics, but I do think we can move (and ppl are) from idealized global approaches to quasi-local approaches, in search of deidealization.
Over the last century, black holes have evolved from a theoretical curiosity into a key testing ground for modern physics. | https://bit.ly/48Rgc0t
But as Eugene Chua argues, the models rely on untested assumptions, including those behind Hawking’s theory of black hole evaporation.
#philsci ⚛️ 🧪
But as Eugene Chua argues, the models rely on untested assumptions, including those behind Hawking’s theory of black hole evaporation.
#philsci ⚛️ 🧪
Hawking radiation and the messy truth behind black hole physics | Eugene Chua
bit.ly
October 6, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Wrote a short piece for the IAI, on my recent paper on black holes and global energy! Contrary to title, I don't claim to have the messy truth behind black hole physics, but I do think we can move (and ppl are) from idealized global approaches to quasi-local approaches, in search of deidealization.
Very happy to announce that the CFP is now open for APSA26: The Inaugural Biennial Conference of the Asian Philosophy of Science Association! It will be held at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The keynote will be Craig Callender. Submission deadline: 31 Dec 2025. URL: tinyurl.com/APSA26
Asian Philosophy of Science Association (APSA) Conference 2026
tinyurl.com
September 15, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Very happy to announce that the CFP is now open for APSA26: The Inaugural Biennial Conference of the Asian Philosophy of Science Association! It will be held at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The keynote will be Craig Callender. Submission deadline: 31 Dec 2025. URL: tinyurl.com/APSA26
Reposted by Eugene Y. S. Chua
Just accepted:
'The Toll of the Tolman Effect: On the Status of Classical Temperature in General Relativity'
– Eugene Chua & Craig Callender
Abstract in alt text or read the full paper here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
#philsci #philsky
'The Toll of the Tolman Effect: On the Status of Classical Temperature in General Relativity'
– Eugene Chua & Craig Callender
Abstract in alt text or read the full paper here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
#philsci #philsky
August 7, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Just accepted:
'The Toll of the Tolman Effect: On the Status of Classical Temperature in General Relativity'
– Eugene Chua & Craig Callender
Abstract in alt text or read the full paper here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
#philsci #philsky
'The Toll of the Tolman Effect: On the Status of Classical Temperature in General Relativity'
– Eugene Chua & Craig Callender
Abstract in alt text or read the full paper here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
#philsci #philsky
My paper w/ Bosco Garcia (UCSD) & Harman Brah (UCLA) on the 'problem of atypicality' for LLM-powered psychiatry is now published at the Journal of Medical Ethics! Just as GPT5 is touting capability as "active thought partner"...
JME link: bit.ly/jme-atypical...
Preprint: bit.ly/atypicality-...
JME link: bit.ly/jme-atypical...
Preprint: bit.ly/atypicality-...
The problem of atypicality in LLM-powered psychiatry
Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly proposed as scalable solutions to the global mental health crisis. But their deployment in psychiatric contexts raises a distinctive ethical concern: the ...
bit.ly
August 8, 2025 at 5:44 PM
My paper w/ Bosco Garcia (UCSD) & Harman Brah (UCLA) on the 'problem of atypicality' for LLM-powered psychiatry is now published at the Journal of Medical Ethics! Just as GPT5 is touting capability as "active thought partner"...
JME link: bit.ly/jme-atypical...
Preprint: bit.ly/atypicality-...
JME link: bit.ly/jme-atypical...
Preprint: bit.ly/atypicality-...
Reposted by Eugene Y. S. Chua
We are hiring in Philosophy at NTU!
Open rank and open area call for tenure-track/tenured positions: philjobs.org/job/show/29338
Open rank and open area call for tenure-track/tenured positions: philjobs.org/job/show/29338
Assistant Professor/Associate Professor/Full Professor of Philosophy, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
- PhilJobs:JFP
Assistant Professor/Associate Professor/Full Professor of Philosoph...
An international database of jobs for philosophers
philjobs.org
July 28, 2025 at 2:34 PM
We are hiring in Philosophy at NTU!
Open rank and open area call for tenure-track/tenured positions: philjobs.org/job/show/29338
Open rank and open area call for tenure-track/tenured positions: philjobs.org/job/show/29338
Talks from the 2025 Foundations of Thermodynamics workshop held at NTU Singapore, co-organized with @wmyrvold.bsky.social, are now available on YouTube here: bit.ly/yt-ftd2025
Thanks again to all participants for attending the workshop and contributing to the lively and fruitful discussions! :)
Thanks again to all participants for attending the workshop and contributing to the lively and fruitful discussions! :)
2025 Foundations of Thermodynamics Workshop, Singapore - YouTube
Recordings of talks from the Foundations of Thermodynamics Workshop held at NTU Singapore 16-18 July 2025.
youtube.com
July 27, 2025 at 7:41 AM
Talks from the 2025 Foundations of Thermodynamics workshop held at NTU Singapore, co-organized with @wmyrvold.bsky.social, are now available on YouTube here: bit.ly/yt-ftd2025
Thanks again to all participants for attending the workshop and contributing to the lively and fruitful discussions! :)
Thanks again to all participants for attending the workshop and contributing to the lively and fruitful discussions! :)
It's a wrap! Many thanks to participants of the 2025 Foundations of Thermodynamics workshop for making it a great success. Glad that the first workshop I organized went smoothly :) I got helpful feedback on some new work on the concept of quantum work, and learnt so much from the other speakers!
July 21, 2025 at 10:37 AM
It's a wrap! Many thanks to participants of the 2025 Foundations of Thermodynamics workshop for making it a great success. Glad that the first workshop I organized went smoothly :) I got helpful feedback on some new work on the concept of quantum work, and learnt so much from the other speakers!
Temperature falls apart yet again! Jokes aside, very excited to share that my paper with Craig Callender, "The Toll of the Tolman Effect: On the Status of Classical Temperature in General Relativity", was accepted for publication in the BJPS! Preprint available here: arxiv.org/abs/2507.10529
The Toll of the Tolman Effect: On the Status of Classical Temperature in General Relativity
The Tolman effect is well-known in relativistic cosmology but rarely discussed outside it. That is surprising because the effect -- that systems extended over a varying gravitational potential exhibit...
arxiv.org
July 15, 2025 at 5:56 AM
Temperature falls apart yet again! Jokes aside, very excited to share that my paper with Craig Callender, "The Toll of the Tolman Effect: On the Status of Classical Temperature in General Relativity", was accepted for publication in the BJPS! Preprint available here: arxiv.org/abs/2507.10529
Reposted by Eugene Y. S. Chua
When two LLMs debate, both think they’ll win
Absolutely fascinating paper shows that LLMs basically cannot judge their own performance. None of the prompting techniques worked
arxiv.org/abs/2505.19184
Absolutely fascinating paper shows that LLMs basically cannot judge their own performance. None of the prompting techniques worked
arxiv.org/abs/2505.19184
When Two LLMs Debate, Both Think They'll Win
Can LLMs accurately adjust their confidence when facing opposition? Building on previous studies measuring calibration on static fact-based question-answering tasks, we evaluate Large Language Models ...
arxiv.org
June 10, 2025 at 10:59 PM
When two LLMs debate, both think they’ll win
Absolutely fascinating paper shows that LLMs basically cannot judge their own performance. None of the prompting techniques worked
arxiv.org/abs/2505.19184
Absolutely fascinating paper shows that LLMs basically cannot judge their own performance. None of the prompting techniques worked
arxiv.org/abs/2505.19184
Co-organized with @wmyrvold.bsky.social, the 2025 Foundations of Thermodynamics workshop will be held in NTU from 16-18 July 2025. We have a great slate of participants and I am very much looking forward to it!
Attendance is free and there will be a Zoom option. Details here: bit.ly/3SxvSNi
Attendance is free and there will be a Zoom option. Details here: bit.ly/3SxvSNi
June 3, 2025 at 2:59 AM
Co-organized with @wmyrvold.bsky.social, the 2025 Foundations of Thermodynamics workshop will be held in NTU from 16-18 July 2025. We have a great slate of participants and I am very much looking forward to it!
Attendance is free and there will be a Zoom option. Details here: bit.ly/3SxvSNi
Attendance is free and there will be a Zoom option. Details here: bit.ly/3SxvSNi
Looking forward to being back in the Boston area, meeting old friends, and participating in a debate w/ Siddharth about my recent EJPS paper, "Not Quite Killing It", next Tuesday at the ngEHT's 4th History, Philosophy, and Culture working group meeting at Harvard's Black Hole Initiative! 😄
4th HP&C Meeting: May 20, 2025 | ngEHT
www.ngeht.org
May 16, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Looking forward to being back in the Boston area, meeting old friends, and participating in a debate w/ Siddharth about my recent EJPS paper, "Not Quite Killing It", next Tuesday at the ngEHT's 4th History, Philosophy, and Culture working group meeting at Harvard's Black Hole Initiative! 😄
Last class for the philosophy of quantum mechanics! It was so much work since it's the first time I'm teaching this, but it was rewarding to see students leave the course with an appreciation of the open questions at the foundations of quantum mechanics and science 😄
April 16, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Last class for the philosophy of quantum mechanics! It was so much work since it's the first time I'm teaching this, but it was rewarding to see students leave the course with an appreciation of the open questions at the foundations of quantum mechanics and science 😄
Very happy that my paper with @eddykemingchen.bsky.social is officially published with Synthese with open access. It was a great opportunity to survey the space of options when it comes to the Born Rule for Everettians, and see how density matrix realism generalizes them!
Happy to share that my paper with @eugenechua.bsky.social is now officially published with open access! 🚀
"Decoherence, branching, and the Born rule in a mixed-state Everettian multiverse" link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Thanks to all who offered feedback!
"Decoherence, branching, and the Born rule in a mixed-state Everettian multiverse" link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Thanks to all who offered feedback!
Decoherence, branching, and the Born rule in a mixed-state Everettian multiverse - Synthese
In Everettian quantum mechanics, justifications for the Born rule appeal to self-locating uncertainty or decision theory. Such justifications have focused exclusively on a pure-state Everettian multiv...
link.springer.com
April 9, 2025 at 4:54 AM
Very happy that my paper with @eddykemingchen.bsky.social is officially published with Synthese with open access. It was a great opportunity to survey the space of options when it comes to the Born Rule for Everettians, and see how density matrix realism generalizes them!
Finally caught up on Orb: On the Movements of the Earth. What a rewarding watch, esp. as a philosopher of science! It's a fictionalized pre-history of heliocentrism in the age of the Inquisition, and a rumination on truth, knowledge, faith, humanity. It's also beautifully written and crafted.
March 31, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Finally caught up on Orb: On the Movements of the Earth. What a rewarding watch, esp. as a philosopher of science! It's a fictionalized pre-history of heliocentrism in the age of the Inquisition, and a rumination on truth, knowledge, faith, humanity. It's also beautifully written and crafted.
Reposted by Eugene Y. S. Chua
PSA Around the World 2025 - one week to the deadline.
We look forward to receiving your abstracts.
We look forward to receiving your abstracts.
Don't forget to submit your abstract: PSA Around the World 2025 🌍 Focus: Eastern & Central Europe.
🗓️ Deadline: March 31, 2025
💻 Fully online, Nov 6, 14, 22
$50 fee (waivers available).
More info: philsci.org/psa_arou...
📄 Submit abstracts: http://psaatw25.scie...
🗓️ Deadline: March 31, 2025
💻 Fully online, Nov 6, 14, 22
$50 fee (waivers available).
More info: philsci.org/psa_arou...
📄 Submit abstracts: http://psaatw25.scie...
March 24, 2025 at 7:50 AM
PSA Around the World 2025 - one week to the deadline.
We look forward to receiving your abstracts.
We look forward to receiving your abstracts.
Always nice to be back in Caltech. Looking forward to co-presenting with Craig Callender on the Tolman effect and the temperature concept in general relativity, at the &HPS10 conference this week!
March 25, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Always nice to be back in Caltech. Looking forward to co-presenting with Craig Callender on the Tolman effect and the temperature concept in general relativity, at the &HPS10 conference this week!
Reposted by Eugene Y. S. Chua
The first article in the special issue @martinkusch.bsky.social and I are coediting is out! Thomas Uebel lays to rest various myths about the Vienna Circle views of social sciences, proving yet again that they were right about pretty much everything. #philsci #philsky #histsci #sts
Logical empiricist anti-exceptionalism in its Austro-German context
www.sciencedirect.com
March 18, 2025 at 8:09 PM
The first article in the special issue @martinkusch.bsky.social and I are coediting is out! Thomas Uebel lays to rest various myths about the Vienna Circle views of social sciences, proving yet again that they were right about pretty much everything. #philsci #philsky #histsci #sts
Reposted by Eugene Y. S. Chua
In merging gen. relativity with quantum gravity, we risk losing time itself. The 'thermal time hypothesis' says time emerges thermodynamically—but does it smuggle in dynamics from the start? A new article by @eugenechua.bsky.social appraises TTH📄👇 link.springer.com/article/10.1... #philsci #philsky
March 17, 2025 at 9:32 PM
In merging gen. relativity with quantum gravity, we risk losing time itself. The 'thermal time hypothesis' says time emerges thermodynamically—but does it smuggle in dynamics from the start? A new article by @eugenechua.bsky.social appraises TTH📄👇 link.springer.com/article/10.1... #philsci #philsky
Looking forward to meeting colleagues and speaking on this paper on idealization, de-Idealization, and asymptotic reasoning I wrote with @yichenluo.bsky.social (UWO), at Lingnan and HKUST in Hong Kong next week!
February 27, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Looking forward to meeting colleagues and speaking on this paper on idealization, de-Idealization, and asymptotic reasoning I wrote with @yichenluo.bsky.social (UWO), at Lingnan and HKUST in Hong Kong next week!
The Asian Philosophy of Science Association is planning to convene our first conference in 2026! We are looking for institutions, particularly in Asia, who are interested in hosting APSA26. If interested, please send us a proposal! Details here: www.philsciasia.org#13
February 23, 2025 at 2:17 PM
The Asian Philosophy of Science Association is planning to convene our first conference in 2026! We are looking for institutions, particularly in Asia, who are interested in hosting APSA26. If interested, please send us a proposal! Details here: www.philsciasia.org#13
I was invited to write an article for @iai.tv on the emergence of time in quantum gravity, based on some past work, recent work, and work in progress.
I used to watch IAI lectures and debates all the time as an aspiring philosophy student, so it's a milestone to be able to contribute to it now! 😄
I used to watch IAI lectures and debates all the time as an aspiring philosophy student, so it's a milestone to be able to contribute to it now! 😄
Can time emerge from a timeless world? | Eugene Chua
iai.tv
February 19, 2025 at 6:17 PM
I was invited to write an article for @iai.tv on the emergence of time in quantum gravity, based on some past work, recent work, and work in progress.
I used to watch IAI lectures and debates all the time as an aspiring philosophy student, so it's a milestone to be able to contribute to it now! 😄
I used to watch IAI lectures and debates all the time as an aspiring philosophy student, so it's a milestone to be able to contribute to it now! 😄
Can time emerge from thermodynamics? My paper scrutinizing the thermal time hypothesis is officially published with @springernature.com at @jgps.bsky.social! Full-text view-only link here: rdcu.be/d9fhd
The Time in Thermal Time
rdcu.be
February 10, 2025 at 5:35 AM
Can time emerge from thermodynamics? My paper scrutinizing the thermal time hypothesis is officially published with @springernature.com at @jgps.bsky.social! Full-text view-only link here: rdcu.be/d9fhd
My paper with @eddykemingchen.bsky.social has been accepted at Synthese! What if the fundamental state of the world is a mixed state? We tell a generalized story of decoherence and branching, and extend three proofs for the Born rule to mixed-state Everettianism.
philpapers.org/rec/CHUDBA
philpapers.org/rec/CHUDBA
Eugene Y. S. Chua & Eddy Keming Chen, Decoherence, Branching, and the Born Rule in a Mixed-State Everettian Multiverse - PhilPapers
In Everettian quantum mechanics, justifications for the Born rule appeal to self-locating uncertainty or decision theory. Such justifications have focused exclusively on a pure-state Everettian multiv...
philpapers.org
January 28, 2025 at 4:15 AM
My paper with @eddykemingchen.bsky.social has been accepted at Synthese! What if the fundamental state of the world is a mixed state? We tell a generalized story of decoherence and branching, and extend three proofs for the Born rule to mixed-state Everettianism.
philpapers.org/rec/CHUDBA
philpapers.org/rec/CHUDBA
Reposted by Eugene Y. S. Chua
If you're an academic who might like to write a longform essay for @aeon.co, I'm accepting pitches! I specialise in physics/astronomy/space, earth science, environment, and technology + more. #science, #physics ⚛️, #geosciences, #paleontology #astronomy, #philtech, #histsci, #SciComm #science
January 6, 2025 at 3:13 PM
If you're an academic who might like to write a longform essay for @aeon.co, I'm accepting pitches! I specialise in physics/astronomy/space, earth science, environment, and technology + more. #science, #physics ⚛️, #geosciences, #paleontology #astronomy, #philtech, #histsci, #SciComm #science