Classics Book Club

The Classics Book Club has been set up since the launch of the General Education (GE) Foundation Programme in 2012. It aims to promote classics reading to undergraduate students and the wider campus community at CUHK. During its early years, the Classics Book Club primarily focused on organizing book talks and reading groups on classical texts selected from the two courses of the GE Foundation Programme. The Classics Book Club has then evolved to cover a wide range of classics from different disciplines, ranging from philosophy, literature, social science to computer engineering, medical science, and natural science. While most book talks and reading groups examined issues in particular classical text, such as The Analects and Plato’s Symposium, some sessions surveyed key developments of a selected academic topic, such as contemporary astronomy, medieval magic, and flâneur in modern times, through reviewing prominent classical texts relating to the discipline. Speakers and moderators of talksand  reading groups are usually members of the teaching team of the GE Foundation Programme.

The Idea of Cause in Aristotle’s Understanding of the Natural World

Speaker: Dr. LO Chun Yeung Edwin
Moderator: Dr. LEUNG Cheuk Hang
Date: 1 / 11 / 2024 (Fri)
Time: 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Venue: University Bookstore (YIA 1/F), CUHK 

In Cantonese 

Synopsis

阿里士多德對自然世界的解釋在西方世界影響巨大,流傳甚久,屹立近二千年,到十七世紀科學革命時期才被打破。他的自然理論包涵物理、天文、氣象及生物等題材,範圍廣闊卻又能統歸於一套中心理論,而其中的「四因說 」更是整個系統中的重要支柱。是次講座會以阿里士多德《物理學》及其他相關著作探討他如何以「因」來理解自然世界種種現象。

Registration

CUHK students and staff: https://webapp.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/ras/restricted/event?id=93806

Alumni and public audience: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13697973

Free admission, all are welcome.
Enquiry: gefp@cuhk.edu.hk

Karl Marx and Instagram: How Social Media Makes Us Strange

Speaker: Dr. WONG Tung Tin
Moderator: Dr. LEUNG Cheuk Hang
Date: 18 / 10 / 2024 (Fri)
Time: 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Venue: University Bookstore (YIA 1/F), CUHK 

In Cantonese 

Synopsis

本講座探討三個議題。一是馬克思在《1844經濟學哲學手稿》當中所涉及到的異化問題;二是異化問題如何在當今社會中有什麽變化,尤其是在社交媒體盛行的當下;三是當代哲學家Guy Debord如何將異化問題擴張到「景觀社會」這個概念,來理解當今社交媒體所帶來的異化。

Registration
(The event has ended)

Free admission, all are welcome.
Enquiry: gefp@cuhk.edu.hk

人工智能會有創意嗎?從音樂創作探討人工智能與創意


Speaker: Dr. SZETO Wai Man
Moderator: Dr. LEUNG Cheuk Hang
Date: 22 / 3 / 2024 (Fri)
Time: 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Venue: University Bookstore, CUHK (1/F, YIA)

In Cantonese 

Synopsis

人工智能(AI)會否有創意?有人質疑AI缺乏真正的創意,只靠重複使用現存數據衍生「新作」。然而,網上流傳的AI創作示範卻又令人眼前一亮。本講將從音樂創作探討AI的創造力,先簡介AI作曲原理並與人類作曲過程比較,繼而介紹關於創意的著作,討論何謂創意──是力求推翻傳統,還是重新組合既有想法?我們將探討AI在音樂創作中的應用與限制,重新審視AI時代下的創意。

Registration
(The event has ended)

Free admission, all are welcome.
Enquiry: gefp@cuhk.edu.hk

Memory and Nostalgia

Speaker: Dr. YEUNG Yang
Guests: Mr. Tang Kwok-hin and Ms. Lee Hoi-yin Joanna
Moderator: Dr. LEUNG Cheuk Hang
Date: 17 / 11 / 2023 (Fri)
Time: 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Venue: University Bookstore, CUHK (1/F, YIA)

In Cantonese and English

Synopsis

“Survivors of the twentieth century, we are all nostalgic for a time when we were not nostalgic. But there seems to be no way back.” As such, Svetlana Boym concludes her book The Future of Nostalgia. Is nostalgia about a past that is no longer, or a way to kindle imagination of the future? Is nostalgia a negative sentiment to be dismissed, or a long-distance romantic relationship? How does nostalgia tell us about our modern sense of time as compared to ancients’ sense of time? By way of Boym’s research on writers’ and artists’ longing for home in post-communist cities such as St. Petersburg, Moscow and Berlin, this book talk invites Hong Kong artist Tang Kwok-hin and art writer and critic Joanna Lee to reflect on artistic representations of longing in Hong Kong. Participants are welcome to bring a souvenir from their lives as props and prompts for the discussion on longing.

Registration
(The event has ended)

Free admission, all are welcome.
Enquiry: gefp@cuhk.edu.hk