We are going to prolong Arendt’s philosophical reflections on the banality of evil and the political world starting from von Trotta’s film Hannah Arendt (2012). Although it is well known that Arendt refused to be named as philosopher, one could gain a better understanding of Arendt’s insistence on the problem of evil by referring to the relevant discussions in modern European philosophy. In Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963), Arendt deepened her remarkable analyses of the totalitarian regimes first appeared in The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951). We are going to revisit some of her important insights in revealing the constitutive processes of totalitarianism, like rendering individuals superficial, forming isolated subjects, alienating the capacity of judging and consequently alienating the public world of political actions. All these, in the eyes of Arendt, bring about the phenomenon of thoughtlessness in the present epoch. Nowadays more and more scholars recognize Arendt’s phenomenological way of thinking as the distinctive contribution to the contemporary arena of philosophy and political theories.

In November 2009, Ms W, a post-operative male-to-female transwoman, was refused marriage with her boyfriend in her post-operative gender. She lodged a judicial review against the decision of the marriage registrar, asking the Court to recognize the right of trans people to marriage. She lost in the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal but finally won the case in the Court of Final Appeal by 4 to 1. Throughout the judicial battle that lasted for about 4 years, the visibility of transgender community in the media is greatly increased. The brave coming-out of trans people forces us to reflect on whether they are “only” a gender minority or whether they are actually a lens through which we could examine the very notion of gender itself ? In what way does the lived experience of trans people lead to a concept of justice that values gender diversity? What challenging questions do they pose to gender education that rests on a male vs female framework?

When a place is imagined as disarrayed, normal people will tend to stop visiting, and eventually turn this place into a truly disarrayed location. There is an intricate mutual relationship between urban landscapes in the real world and in our imaginations. So how do we imagine Hong Kong as a city? Do we have different conceptions among social groups? Perhaps before complaining that the city has become foreign to us, we should first ask ourselves that, what kinds of values in our society have induced these changes. After all, if we want to change the look of our city, we may we well need to start from its values.

Some have claimed that, despite its many disadvantages, democracy is the best form of government. It has also been claimed that although democracy does not always select the best people, it can prevent tyranny. So what is democracy for? In addition to the prevention of tyranny, can democracy make the people master of themselves? Will the rule of the people bring about good governance? The speaker will share his thoughts about these questions and discuss three ideas of democracy: (1) representative democracy with popular elections through which the executive and the legislative branches are elected; (2) direct democracy in which people participate directly in public affairs; and (3) deliberative democracy which involves rational dialogues in public spheres.

What makes new knowledge possible? With “DNA: the secret of life” discovered and read, the Higgs boson almost certainly identified, and matter manipulated at the smallest possible scale, will we soon — in a century, say — exhaust everything there is to know? The world has witnessed an accelerated rate of scientific discovery since the 17th century. Standing here and now, after Darwin, Curie and Einstein, how much more can we hope to discover? Professor Sir James A. Mirrlees, Master of Morningside College and Nobel Laureate in economics sciences, will share with us his thoughts and insights on this intriguing topic.

演講將講述日本如何開展和擴張其核能工業，成為全球核能大國之一；探討日本推動「和平使用核能」背後的動機，是扶植其製造核武的能力；討論日本當下的反核運動，包括田中利幸本人所參與的核能民眾法庭。