希尔兹教授

英国牛津大学古典哲学教授

希尔兹教授1979年毕业于美国鲍灵格林州立大学,主修英国文学,其后留校转研哲学,1981年获硕士学位后,再赴康奈尔大学深造,分别于1984及1986年获颁哲学硕士及博士学位。希尔兹教授最初受聘于高比大学(1986–88),1988年转往科罗拉多大学,从事教研工作凡十六年,曾任助理教授、副教授、教授等职。2004年开始任教于英国牛津大学至今,现为该校古典哲学教授及玛格丽特夫人学院院士。

希尔兹教授多次获邀到美国、英国、新西兰、德国等地访问讲学,曾任牛津大学基督圣体学院访问学人(1992–93)、耶鲁大学访问教授(2002)、康奈尔大学访问教授(2007)、坎培拉大学厄斯金访问教授(2003)、柏林洪堡大学访问学者及高级学人(2012, 2013)。

希尔兹教授以古代哲学及形上学研究着称学术界,于心灵哲学、中古哲学、现代哲学、哲学与文学等范畴亦素有研究,已发表专着7种、论文近50篇,包括:《牛津手册:亚里士多德》(2012)、《古哲学今论》(2011;中译本2014年面世)、《亚里士多德》(2007;中译本2013年面世)、《古代哲学》(2002;中译本2009)、《多元中的秩序:亚里士多德哲学中的同名异义》(1999);他也是《心灵哲学史》(共5册,即将出版)的主编。

希尔兹教授为第十九位唐君毅访问教授。他的公开演讲以「灵魂的重探:生命系统与其他统一体」为题,探讨生命系统如何成为拥有特殊地位的统一体。他亦为本系主持一个为期四周的研究院研讨班「亚里士多德之《灵魂论》」,与学生共同研读由他译注的《灵魂论》(2014年由Clarendon出版社出版),重点讨论形质说在心理学研究中的角色和本质。最后,希尔兹教授会于本系教职员研讨会上主讲「亚里士多德伦理学中的『至善』:撕裂的善」,分析柏拉图和亚里士多德关于善之形上学的论争。

灵魂的重探:生命系统与其他统一体

poster
2013年9月16日(一)
下午四时半
康本国际学术园 二号演讲室

我们很容易会这样想:灵魂这概念已被科学取代。假若如此,那么在宗教范畴以外,我们便没有什么理由争论灵魂是否存在了:毕竟,许多解释原本是由灵魂此概念充当,现已均由经验科学——尤其是生物科学——取代。然而,上述这个推断,其实是未成熟、甚至是短视的。亚里士多德视灵魂为一个统一原则;当我们反思其形而上的理据时,我们有理由重新审视「生命系统实际上是有特殊地位的统一体」的提议。因此,我们要么就接受这些系统之统一是原始的,要么就要设定某些关于特殊地位的原则。在设定这样的原则之时,我们其实已在回探生命系统是具有灵魂的假设。

The Aristotelian Soul

13 Sept 2013 (Fri) 2:30-5:15 LSK 201
23 Sept 2013 (Mon) 3:30-6:15 YIA 201
27 Sept 2013 (Fri) 2:30-5:15 LSK 201
4 Oct 2013 (Fri) 2:30-5:15 LSK 201

De Anima contains Aristotle’s most mature reflections on the soul and its capacities. Probably composed in his second and last period in Athens, the treatise casts a long shadow: over the last two millennia there have been an estimated eight-hundred commentaries dedicated to it; and it continues to be a subject of non-antiquarian study even today. The abiding interest of Aristotle’s De Anima owes in part to the intrinsic merit of its subject matter: life, the soul and its relation to the body, perception, thought, desire, and human action. Another source of interest derives from the general framework within which Aristotle conducts his investigations into the these topics: De Anima makes full and complex use of Aristotle’s most sophisticated hylomorphism, with the result that it offers a unified framework for assaying phenomena whose close relations tend to be obscured in comparatively piecemeal approaches.

Our goal in this seminar is twofold: we will want to understand Aristotle’s often challenging contentions regarding the soul and its capacities and then to determine whether we ourselves should accept or reject the analyses he offers. Towards these ends, we will divide our discussions into four sections, beginning with an introduction to the problems of the soul, as Aristotle conceives them, and then following with consideration of three waves, or distinct applications, of hylomorphism, to: (i) soul-body relations; (ii) perception (aisthêsis); and (iii) reason (nous).

亚里士多德伦理学中的「至善」:撕裂的善

poster
2013年9月30日(一)
下午四时半
香港中文大学冯景禧楼101室

Aristotle contends that Plato was wrong to postulate the existence of a Form of the Good, which, as characterises it, is meant to be “some good beyond all other good things, something good in its own right (τι καθ’ αὑτὸ εἶναι), which is the cause of the goodness of all good things” (EN 1095a26–28). Yet he himself endorses the existence of some best and highest good (τἀγαθὸν καὶ τὸ ἄριστον; EN1094a17–21), which he conceives as the end of all intentional action. While this is not a contradiction, it brings into sharp relief the question of Aristotle’s own understanding of the summum bonum: does he in fact have a coherent, defensible conception?