Seungil Lee is a new lecturer at the University of Illinois and recent PhD from the Illinois Department of Philosophy. His primary interests occupy the intersection of physics and metaphysics. More specifically, he is interested in what contemporary physical theories can tell us about the world regarding some traditional questions in metaphysics, including: Are there fundamental constituents of the physical world? Do we need the notion of substrata to explain the world? Does time pass? Is there a singular, coherent, mind-independent physical reality?

Currently, he is working on the last question, considering Carlo Rovelli’s relational quantum mechanics (RQM), which is one of the most recent proposed interpretations of quantum mechanics. RQM is predicated on the idea that variables corresponding to contingent properties of a physical system take on certain values only relative to another physical system. This interpretation appears to have relativist implications. Professor Lee is asking whether this interpretation is nevertheless compatible with the view that there is a coherent, mind-independent physical world. 

Professor Lee has taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for several semesters. In Fall 2022, he is teaching an introductory course in philosophy, where he covers various areas of contemporary philosophy, including ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, the philosophy of religion, and the philosophy of science. He is also working as an academic advisor.