Anthony (Qingyuan) Hu

  

Volume 9 | Issue II | June 2025

The Hotchkiss School ’25 | Connecticut, United States

Columbia University ’29

  

I’ve always been aware of the way things pass – time, relationships, or a loved one’s health – most erratically and inescapably. When I first read about Pyrrho years ago, he swiftly convinced me that we are no more permanent, reasonable, or justified than the fluttering autumn leaves or a sudden winter snow. But in the pages of my journalism, I have worked for years to construct this permanence; conducting fieldwork in ethnic communities around the world, I’ve sought collective narratives that transcend our times; between the keys of my piano, lost episodes of the past were relived again and again. As a student of philosophy, I thus find intuitions to be a curious subject – so unfounded, unexplainable, yet so restless and deeply felt. It's from this intriguing wellspring that my passions for piano, journalism, and service draw their roots, becoming entities much more permanent than these activities themselves. I’ve always questioned the origins of their powers – whether they are more spiritual, more forced, or more adaptive. For me, writing for The Schola on moral intuitions is only a start to what could be an endless search for what I’ve known as logical certainty ever since skepticism entered my life years ago. As I go on playing my ethnic music, writing my poetry, and observing this world, I know that intuition and skepticism will continue their battle within my brain, and my work for this journal has prepared me well for it.