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。

科學家窮其一生，埋首研究，孜孜不倦不餒。他們的原動力從何而來？科學研究，貴在新思維、新門徑、新突破。 創新的源頭在那？ 創新可以鍛練學習嗎？

當大家都知道「物競天擇，適者生存」，當解讀達爾文的書已經這麼多，而達爾文的話對很多人來講又是枯燥煩悶，我們為何還要細讀它？台灣作家楊照自2005年 起以「現代經典細讀」為題開課，每期討論兩本「現代經典」。作為一個文學人，他的選擇卻包括了達爾文的《物種起源》，講課內容更結集成書。讀達爾文對一個 知識人來說，有何意義？ 楊照說，經典是難以被簡化的書：讀《物種起源》的簡化本，你會看出「達爾文主義」，卻不會見到真正的達爾文。他又說，讀經典帶來自由。這自由要怎樣理解？ 普通話主講 In Putonghua