十九世紀的英國如日中天，社會全面發展，不限於科學和工業革命，人文藝術各方面也是人才輩出。倫敦雲集了大批士紳，應酬玩樂之外，亦時尚結社，鬧哄哄地討論著來自全世界的新知識；即使是學者發表成果的學術講座，會眾當中不分鴻儒白丁，也爭先恐後為要先聽為快。長期生活於這種氛圍的巴特勒 (Samuel Butler 1835 –1902)，是世家出身，卻生性叛逆，最恨人云亦云盲從信條的態度。《烏有之鄉》看似是不太嚴肅的作品，當中卻包含著他多年的哲思。筆下創造的烏托邦，不只是為了諷刺盲從信條的人們，更是要用來探討更嚴肅的議題，包括宗教信仰，科技發明，還有達爾文剛發表的演化論。

Shakespeare’s great tragedy still challenges us today, partly because it retains the force of a modern, “living” text, one that cannot be exhausted by historical understanding. Western readers still live and think within the moral space created by this drama, without being able fully to resolve the ethical conflicts that the play’s hero so keenly feels. Hamlet’s confrontation with questions of responsibility, suicide, and absurdity continue to haunt us. His failed moral struggle is heroic in a new sense that makes him a foundational figure of Western modernity. This lecture and discussion are designed to invite the audience into the text of Hamlet in order to trace its fateful departure from traditional concepts of the individual and society, and to see how it opened a path to new ways of thinking and feeling that characterize the post-Romantic age.

兩部史詩，突出兩個「英雄」。 一個挾其神族血統，兇猛、矯健、俊美，怒火能發不能收。為求得永恆的榮譽，那怕是離鄉早死、敵友同亡，都在所不惜。 一個只是謙謙凡人，俊美不足，卻能屈能忍。他憑著歷練的世故、智計、辯才，贏得人神眷顧；二十年不忘還鄉夢，神女美色、不死承諾都可放棄。 三萬行詩句，展現兩段心路歷程。 由這端到那端，兩個「英雄」對己對人有沒有新的認識？在心理和道德的層面有沒有絲毫成長。 從現代的角度看，穿插在兩段歷程中的「英雌」、老者、少年，是否也是個人物，甚或更有長進？ *Co-oganized with Bookclub 與讀書會合辦

While recognizing the fundamental importance of capital, labor, and the production of surplus value, Adam Smith and Karl Marx both struggle with existential questions about what it means to be human and about the nature of human flourishing.  Urgent questions erupt from their economic and historical models which both complicate and elucidate the elementary assumptions of each.  This talk will focus on unearthing those questions and examining their implications for our understanding of each author and of their impact on the development of political and social thought.  The talk will pay special attention to the coherence and continuities between the two thinkers.

“In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches.  Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by graduation.  LIght will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.”  This is taken from the ending lines of Darwin’s Origin of Species published 150 years ago.  The past 30 years have seen increasing interdisciplinary efforts in applying Darwinian principles to understand human cognition and behavior.  I will talk about this new knowledge development and the related research on human nature and behavior that is rooted in natural selection and sexual selection theories.

談起柏拉圖式的愛情，一般人只想起與精神層面有關，然而這是真的嗎？柏拉圖在《會飲篇》中，對愛情之現象及問題作了多方面的探討。講者嘗試透過此講，探討《會飲篇》中愛情的多層意義，以及與我們人生的關係。