mission
towards a future philosophy
(x)—read as “proposition x” or simply "prop-x" to avoid confusion—was inspired by two 20th-century philosophers, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Alvin Plantinga (sorry to disappoint, but it was absolutely not inspired by Elon Musk). In his groundbreaking book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Wittgenstein envisioned philosophy as the logical concoction of all the “atomic facts”—well-defined and logically simple (“atomic”) states of affairs (“facts”) each uniquely represented by a proposition. While philosophers nowadays are widely disillusioned about this positivistic utopia, analytic philosophers increasingly rely on “propositionalization” to get their point across precisely, clarify logical relations between claims, and improve philosophical discussions (by pinpointing the disagreement on one or more propositions).
Among many others, Plantinga epitomized this “propositionalizing” approach by meticulously numbering significant propositions in his books and papers (sometimes up to over 50!). This way, rather than laboriously explaining what one found problematic, one could just say, for example, “I disagree with propositions (15), (28’), and (29).” (x) grew out of the ideas of both philosophers. The name “(x)” comes from the most common form of numbering propositions, where x is a natural number, sometimes with an additional asterisk (*), closing single quote (’), or lower case letter. Essentially, (x) is an invitation for philosophers and philosophers-to-be to imagine a particular picture of future philosophy, one in which every significant proposition corresponds to a unique number. This mission is pursued in four "(x) projects". But if the assumption that philosophy ought to be propositionalized already makes you feel uneasy, you are not alone: see (1).
our story
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Kevin is a sophomore at BIPH on a full scholarship. He founded (x) in the spirit of Wittgenstein and Plantinga as a gesture to imagine a new way of writing philosophy (see above). Unless otherwise stated, everything you see on this site is written, designed, and implemented by him.
Kevin's journey with public philosophy began in 2022 when he founded my school’s first philosophy club and has been its president since. He also serves as the editor-in-chief of Zeitgeist, a high school journal for applied and practical ethics. In addition, he is a two-time national debate champion, published author, translator, and co-president of The Syllogist.
Kevin is fascinated by areas of philosophy that are either crystal clear—e.g., analytic metaphysics and philosophy of physics—or avowedly artistic—e.g., absurdism and old-school psychoanalysis. His favorite philosophers are Aristotle, Nietzsche, Freud, David Lewis, Lu Xun, and Tibbles. When he is not philosophizing (i.e., analyzing (x)s), you can find him rowing, crafting free verse, or dreaming about Lewisian worlds.
kevin zhang
founder
team
max xu
social media manager
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open leadership roles
We are currently looking for a social media manager in English, a product manager, and two advisors for analytic philosophy.
To be eligible for the first two roles, you must be currently enrolled in high school or university. For the last role, you must have a degree in philosophy or a related field.
Past experience is not necessary but preferred. If you are interested, please enter send us a message with the role you are applying for. Learn more about the organizational structure of (x) here.